By: Meghana Mathur

CITY firms are increasingly bothered by hackers. But now there's a counter: the emerging breed of 'ethical' hackers or 'white hats' as they are popularly called.

While hacking is punishable under the law, the skills of the white hats are much in demand. Says R. Srikumar, IGP, Corps of Detectives, 'Ethical hackers are meant to block the efforts of the 'black hats' or unethical hackers. When a company sets up a web page, they are unaware of the loopholes. Maybe they are unknowingly inviting trouble in the form of black hats. This is where the white hats come in and point out mistakes in their system and rectify the problems. I personally support these hackers."

Although instances of company sites being hacked are on the rise, there has been a decline in cases being reported with the cyber crime cell. "The reason is probably because the company will attract media attention if it admits to being hacked and this adverse publicity could damage its reputation in the market," says Sunil Dutt Jha, CEO of iCMG, a Virginia based company focussed on developing products for internet security.

White hats are a hidden breed. They don't have an organization, neither do they have designations. Anyone who is adept at "digging" the Internet and discovering loopholes can quality. "I know ten-year-olds who hack," adds Jha. Most of the time these hackers use pseudonyms. You can find a Blue Adept or an Itavi entering loopholes and blocking or protecting them from assault. Itavi works as a security official for an e-biz company in Bangalore and he took up white hat hacking as a hobby.

"Black hats are untraceable and dangerous, quietly disturbing and using another company's data. Most of them do it just for kicks," adds Amish K (name changed), a marketing professional who has experienced the thrill once.