Ankit Fadia, the ethical hacker, turns to fiction writing and launchesIndia’s first hacking themed thriller ‘The Casino Job’ published by Amazon

Pune, August 17^th: Ankit Fadia, bestselling author, expands his expertise beyond ethical hacking to write his first fiction novel ‘The Casino Job’.

The Casino Job is a story about best friends – Rohan the maverick hacker, Hardik the simpleton and Mallika the college charmer—go to Goa, they only have fun and sun on their mind. But an innocent evening at the teen patti table in the El Dorado casino ship, swiftly turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse, when they wake up on the beach disoriented, with all their money gone and the dangerous Israeli mafia on their trail. Caught in an accelerating tempest of lies, deception and fraud, the three friends embark on a harrowing journey of revenge where a single mistake could cost them their lives.

Addressing the launch at the Crossword Aundh - Pune, Ankit Fadia said, “Ever since I wrote my first book at the age of 14, I have always wanted to write a fiction novel.As you may have already guessed, the main protagonist inThe Casino Jobis an ethical hacker who in his free time likes to hack into computers and websites for fun. While hacking is central to the plot, this novel also explores modern day college friendship and romancethat is put through the ultimate test after an innocentvisit to a casino ship in Goa goes wrong. The inspiration for the plot of this novel first came to me during a visit to a casino in Goa with my college friends, where I was surprised to see the amount of money people were willing to gamble with. And I knew that where there is a lot of money involved, there will also be criminals trying to steal it.” 

However, stealing from or hacking into modern day casinos is not easy. Typically, most casinos havehundreds of cameras installedin the casino ceiling (known in the industry as the eye in the sky) providing a live feed to the surveillanceteam in the control room who are watching every move of all the customers. The more sophisticated casinos also have something known as a catwalk—that allows the surveillance team towalk above the ceiling, look directly down at the customers, through aone-way glass, spying on all the casinos patrons.

The Casino Job is published by Westland Books (Amazon), costs Rs. 299 and is available in all leading bookstores across India including online on Amazon and Flipkart.

The timing of the book launch coincides with rising cyber security concerns in India related to the Aadhaardata privacy issues, rising influence of fake news on politics and increasing incidents of mobile phone hacking.

Is Aadhaar safe?

Over the last few months, there have been several questions raised around the security and sanctity ofAadhaar. In fact, just a few weeks ago, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chief RS Sharma shared his Aadhaar number publicly, challenging anybody to misuse it. While the central Aadhaar database (where the demographic and biometric data of citizens is stored) is safe, several security breaches have been reported over the last few months in the systems and processes being used by operators within the UIDAI ecosystem, exposing the privacy of citizens. To keep Aadhaar secure, it is important for citizens to keep in mind some best security practices:

·         Avoid sharing any Aadhar details with anybody that you don’t trust

·         Secure your Aadhaar authentication by locking the Biometrics on the UIDAI website

·         Use Virtual ID issued by UIDAI as an alternative to Aadhaar number for authentication or e-KYC purposes

·         Monitor your Aadhaar authentication history on a regular basis on the UIDAI website

Rising influence of fake news on political, social and economic events

Over the last few years, the influence of fake news on mainstream political, social and economic events around the world has been steadily rising. Trump’s election, Modi’s demonetization and mob lynching incidents across India all have one thing in common – fake news spreading through social media and Whats app. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the number of internet users in India is expected to cross 450 million by—241 million have Facebook accounts and over 200 million are on WhatsApp.This widespread proliferation of social media and messaging platforms has left India particularly vulnerable and raises questions about how political parties in India may use fake news as a tacticto influence the upcoming 2019 general elections. While it is important for Internet users to be skeptical and question everything they read, there are some simple best practices that might help:

·         Install the browser extension called BS detector to get alerted about unreliable news sources

·         Install the browser extension called Project Fib to detect fake news on your Facebook news feed

·         Always double check the URL of the article and keep an eye out for similar domain names

·         Check authenticity of article by going to home page of news source and then trying to find the article

Hacking of mobile phones

Over the last couple of years, corporate honchos having their mobile phones hacked by their competitors or their partners has steadily been on the rise. The desire to read somebody else’s Whats app messages or track their exact physical location has created a whole new underground market of mobile phone hacking. Even in The Casino Job, being able to hack into mobile phones is a critical skill in the repertoire of the protagonist. Unless the right precautions are implemented, it is relatively easy for unsuspecting users to become victims and have their mobile phone contents stolen from them:

·         Install an antivirus software on your mobile phone 

·         Download apps only from the App store

·         Do not click on suspicious links that you receive via email or Whats app

·         Do not allow anybody else to have physical access to your phone

About Ankit Fadia

Bestselling author Ankit Fadia is a tech junkie who loves tinkering with computers, gadgets and everything tech. He has hosted a popular show on MTV called What the Hack!, where he gave tips, tricks and tweaks to get more out of technology and the Internet.Widely recognized as a computer security expert, he has published more than a dozen books, delivered more than 1000 talks in twenty-five countries, received several awards and trained more than 20,000 people in India and China. He graduated from Stanford University and was chosen as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and also appointed a Brand Ambassador of the Indian Government's Digital India initiative. Ankit loves to travel and has visited 120 countries.