Assume Everything Is Hacked Already: Ethical Hacker Saket Modi

The days of reckless gallivanting across the deep abyss called the internet are behind us. This is the new reality.

Photo: The Quint

2016 has brought one piece of bad news after the other. On the world wide web, hackers have created a ruckus. This was, without any doubt, the year of Cyber Attacks and Online Hacking. From the privacy of millions of Yahoo accounts being compromised, to high profile Indian Twitter accounts getting hacked by Legion, the internet suddenly appears extremely unsafe. The Quint spoke to Saket Modi, ethical hacker and founder of a privacy solutions company, on how to safeguard your online identity.

When online, assume everything is hacked already. it will drastically change your online habits. Those Snapchat videos, Whatsapp pictures and what you browse will see a dramatic shift.

Saket Modi, CEO & Co-Founder, Lucideus Tech

How To Keep Yourself Safe Online?

• Use a secure web browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or TOR.
  
• Only make financial transactions on sites that have ‘https’ preceding the URL.
  
• Do not download anything from torrent or pornographic sites.
  
• Use a strong alphanumeric password with special characters for all accounts.
  
• Do not repeat passwords across multiple accounts.
  

Saket’s company Lucideus Tech has also worked on building security infrastructure for NPCI’s Unified Payment Interface or UPI. In the wake of demonetisation, he highly recommends UPI to make digital transactions over any digital wallet. “UPI requires a cell phone to make a successful payment and packs in three-actor authentication, making it the safest way to transfer funds online”, says Modi.

The first factor of authentication is your mobile number that is verified using a One-Time Password (OTP). The second factor of authentication is the username and password used for net-banking. The third and final factor of authentication is your UPI identification and PIN. Even if your phone is lost and somebody gets their hands on your unlocked handset, they cannot go through with a transaction without the knowledge of this UPI PIN, making it quite secure.

UPI, with three-factor authentication is more secure than any mobile wallet app. (Photo: The Quint)

I understand that you still don’t have the widespread merchant user base on UPI as on digital wallets, but with more than 22 banks now supporting UPI, this will change very soon.

Saket Modi, CEO & Co-Founder, Lucideus Tech

The days of reckless gallivanting across the deep abyss called the internet are behind us. 2016 changed that in an irreversible manner. Every click and double tap is being watched. This is the new reality. Better get used to it.

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj