Back in my childhood days, I always think that everything in life can be easier if you know how to trick the things you want to do.
As a 90's kid, my childhood is so different than today's generation. In my childhood days I don't see computer as my life or my partner in life (haha) because I'm just a normal kid that play's outside with my friends, riding bike, playing under the rain and etc...
I was in the middle school when I was first introduced to computers, I don't have any knowledge about it, I don't even know how to use it until one day I was introduced into hacking world. I was an online game addict before (Yeah, addict). I spend more time and money just to play computer in the net cafe together with my friends. Because of my addiction into online games, I enter the world of hacking, learning some hacking stuffs from the internet, reading blogs and watching videos about it. I remember back in 2006, my first ever hack that I did online was to hack an online game accounts using a Social Engineering technique so that I can have some good value items and etc from other users accounts. I stole some good items from those accounts that I hacked. the reason why I did that because I don't want to spent money to buy those goddamn premium items from the online game shop.
My journey into hacking world is not as easy as 1 2 3... I spend more time reading and watching some security related blogs and videos online, Testing my few knowledge that I learned from the internet into my targets until I become an active hacktivist (Freedom Fighter) back in 2012 to 2013. Life as an Hacktivist is so good, hacking into your target websites just to deliver your message to your government and etc... Hacking just for fun, hacking just to troll someone and etc... I was also a Cyberwar participant before. I also did some blackhat stuffs before, yeah, blackhat stuffs until I realize that I can use my skills for good.
Mid of 2013 when I saw some whitehat stuffs from a Facebook posts of Mr. Roy Castillo, a friend of mine. I was really impressed on Roy's achievements. It became also my motivation to try those things that Roy did until one day I realized that I can do those stuffs and now, I am proud to say that I was acknowledged by some tech giants like Google, Twitter, Microsoft, LinkedIn, PayPal, Freelancer and etc... Today, I still can't believe on what I achieved as a Whitehat Hacker. I am proud to say that I helped hundreds of companies in a right way.
Being a bug hunter or a bug bounty program participant, you are not just helping companies but you will also earn recognitions and money from them. the good thing of being a whitehat (bug hunter) is you can work any time you want, earn some bounty at any time.
Today, I can say that being a whitehat also really helps me, it changed me a lot. bug bounty is a life changing experience. Bug hunting in the web is a big part of my life now. I can't believe that, by just reading and watching those security related stuffs brought me here and makes me become who I am today. I'm so thankful on what I achieved from being a bug hunter because it also becomes a motivation for others.
I promise to continue this journey til' the very end because bug hunting is a big part of my life, It really shapes me to become the "Evan Ricafort" that you can see in some tech giants security acknowledgement pages now.
So that's the story of my Infosec Journey, I hope you enjoy.
Thanks,
Evan - Invalid Web Security.
"Life is simple, If you can't deal with it then you will lose."
~Evan
