India produces more ethical hackers – those who break into computer networks to expose, ra­ther than exploit, weaknesses – than anywhere else in the world. One anonymous Indian hacker – “Geekboy” – has found more than 700 vulnerabilities for companies like Yahoo, Uber and Rockstar Games. Information volunteered by these cyber-samaritans is often treated with indifference or suspicion, hackers and tech industry obser­vers said. In 2015, Uber-rival Ola launched what it called a “first of its kind” bounty program in India after hac­kers repeatedly exposed vulnerabi­lities in the hugely-popular app. In a mea culpa rare for an Indian tech company, Zomato agreed to launch a “healthy” bounty program and encourage other firms to work with ethical hackers.

Source: The Star May 30, 2017 01:07 UTC