Pentester spotlight: Nitesh Bhatter

Nitesh Bhatter, a renowned penetration tester known as bugcrowdhack3rs, shares his journey into cybersecurity, which began with a project on cryptography and steganography during his undergraduate studies in India. His career was significantly shaped by discovering a cross-site scripting vulnerability in Reddit’s open-source code, leading to recognition and engagement with Bugcrowd's programs. Bhatter highlights mobile security's potential during its early days, leveraging his expertise in proxy-based traffic analysis to uncover significant findings. He points out AI vulnerabilities, specifically AI prompt injection, and the security risks posed by wearable technologies, advocating for increased attention to these areas. Bhatter underscores AI's transformative role in security testing by simplifying automation and documentation processes. While recognizing the value of certifications, he emphasizes practical application over theoretical knowledge. His work in red teaming involves comprehensive assessments that simulate real-world attacks to evaluate organizational detection and response capabilities. Bhatter advises newcomers to focus on specific hacking areas and engage in hands-on practice, while he plans to combine AI-driven automation with manual offensive strategies in his future endeavors.