PHULBANI: A Class X student of Phulbani town has earned accolades from the Government of Liberia for helping nab a hacker who collected a lot of money by sneaking into the official website of the Ministry of Finance and Development of the West African country.
A self-proclaimed ethical hacker, 15-year-old Soumya Ranjan Sahoo is a student of Saraswati Sisu Vidya Mandir. The young cybersecurity expert shot to limelight after he successfully caught the malicious hacker. Soumya also provided digital evidence to Liberian government following which the official webpage of the Ministry of Finance and Development was corrected.
Happy with his work, the government of Liberia presented Soumya with a letter of appreciation and some American dollars along with a job offer in the African country as a token of gratitude. Soumya said for the last four years, he was working with an Indian company dealing with cybersecurity solutions. This particular case was entrusted to him by the company.
On July 22 this year, the Liberian Cyber Crime Prevention and Mitigation Agency came to know about hacking of the Finance department’s official website. They initially tried to solve the problem themselves but could not succeed.
Then they sought assistance of the Indian cybersecurity solutions firm which entrusted the work to Soumya. “I collected the IP address and other relevant information from the Liberian security agency. Using my knowledge of cyber education, I traced the malicious hacker. Using all the digital evidence sent by me, the Liberian government detected the hacker, nabbed him and retrieved their official website,” he informed.
Apart from his regular study, Soumya devotes his time practicing ethical hacking and also teaches local youngsters about cybersecurity solutions. The ethical hacker aims to be an officer in India’s Intelligence Bureau. Father Hemanta Sahu and mother Sanjukta initially opposed Soumya’s work but now, they feel elated over their son’s success.