This Youngster Learned Hacking At The Village Cyber Cafe And Is Now Helping The Government Protect The Nation

This boy comes from a poorly connected rural area of ​​South India and is an absolute inspiration to young people.

Benild Joseph was born in Wayanad, Kerala, to a middle-class family. He had a difficult childhood after losing his father to kidney disease when he was only three years old. Supported by his working mother, He remembers spending many hours in his office when he was very young. “When I was little it was manageable for her, but growing up I caused a lot of problems in her office,” he says in a special interview.

His mother had to make the difficult decision to prioritize her livelihood over looking after her son. She left him at a nearby computer store, where he played games for several hours. This lasted for several years and Benild had already become familiar with computers.

When I hit the STD 7 standard, I took notice of the Orkut social networking site and started thinking about what was behind the development of the platform. “That's when I realized I was interested in technology, programming, and coding,” he says.

Roger Grimes, Senior Security Architect at Microsoft, is working on a book that will introduce Benild to the world's top cybersecurity experts.

By the time he reached STD 9, Benild had developed his own social networking site called “Benzkut”. For his efforts, he was included in the Limca Book of Records at the age of 14. This earned him international recognition and fueled his interest in technology. His next goal was to hack his friend's email id. “I started looking for classes and found one in Calicut, 100 km from my hometown. I traveled 2h30m to take this course where my mentor taught me the importance of being an ethical hacker and I gave up the idea of putting myself on my friends' emails, "he says. Since then, Benild has taken 13 classes and practiced countless hours alone in addition to his engineering degree.

Today, Benild is expanding its cyberspace security services for the Indian government, several state governments, and dozens of well-known private companies. “We have a strong team in the IT industry, but we are very weak when it comes to IT security,” he says.

Interested in travel and outdoor activities, Benild, who now lives in Bengaluru, has also worked on various security projects at the Cybercrime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), the Indian Security Investigation Information Organization (IISRO). ), for the International Cyber Threat. It is an initiative of the Task Force (CTTF) and the Cyber Security Forum (CSFI).

Benild pursued his passion out of breath and overcame every obstacle he encountered. He had no advantage over the people of the big cities, but now he is a regular speaker at IIT and several other prestigious institutions. All of his projects are well paid, but making money is not something that motivates him. “I want to be an industry leader. I want to bring together cybersecurity experts on a platform where we can work together to strengthen the electronic fiber of our country, ”he said.