Edward Snowden, who rocked the U.S. by leaking internal information about the National Security Agency's snooping, learnt hacking in New Delhi, capital of India.
Multiple reports claim that the fugitive, who has taken shelter in Russia, spent a week in New Delhi and developed hacking skills. He received training in core Java programming and advanced ethical hacking, reported Times of India that qualified him as a EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA).
Snowden paid more than $2, 000 as training fee and lodging to Koenig Solutions, the offshore IT training firm, revealed Rohit Aggarwal, CEO of the company, to the newspaper.
"Snowden was a certified ethical hacker and hence he chose a fast-track course. It didn't take him much time to figure out how to create exploit-attacks and hack wireless networks. He was able to interpret vulnerabilities and outcomes in security testing," said Sisir Pandey, technical manager in information security at Koenig who trained Snowden in ECSA.
TOI further reported that Snowden sent an email to Koenig from Japan enquiring about the Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator Course and Certified Ethical Hacker Certification programmes from EC-Council, on July 23, 2009. The company then sent the visa invitation letter to Snowden that was submitted to the embassy in Japan.
The emails revealed that Snowden had multiple security certifications - the Microsoft Certified Solutions Experts (MCSE) certification, EC-Council's Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Project Management Professional (PMP) and Network+ and Security+ certifications from the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), an IT trade association that helps advance global IT professionals.
Snowden is described as a quiet person, who kept to himself by the company employees. "He kept to himself. He was unassuming and nothing out of the ordinary. He was focused on the curriculum. He would frequently visit the Haldirams restaurant next to our centre," Koenig centre manager Hema Sharma, who interacted with Snowden told TOI.
