hello everything around you is a source
of learning and inspiration
so was for me and can it be for you my
name is Jamie Thomas and I’m an ethical
hacker an entrepreneur and up till a
couple of months ago a severe anxiety
patient most of you were born in Karachi
most of you were born in households that
were well-equipped
and developed in terms of technology in
terms of development in terms of
literature I opened my eyes in a small
200 yards house in Multan whose internal
street was as big as just the store and
I was a dumb kid I was so dumb that I
used to think that goats grow up into
cows life moved on and the story that
I’m going to tell you her today is that
my life is a spiral of ashes to flames
it is a continuous cycle in which I’ve
been burned down and flew up again
no worries so I was saying I don’t call
myself a Phoenix as of yet because I’m
yet to achieve the point where I
completely fail and are torn apart my
life is a story of complete failures
instead of success what you see about me
what you heard about me is not is not
the complete story so born in Multan in
a household that was old I was always
taught that education was the only thing
that I had to look forward to which was
mostly true but moving on
in 2003 me and my family due to my
father’s job we moved to Karachi here
I was scared of failing that’s why I
worked hard which and afterwards I got
to realize that being scared of failure
is not what you drive your motivation
here in Karachi I got admitted into into
an army public school and I studied hard
real hard without a second thought of
going anywhere else
studying hard made me in top of my class
I was popular among students but only as
a nerd there was nothing else there
moving on my life came to a stand point
where I thought that I had achieved of
something that my parents and everyone
would be proud of but led little did I
know that failure was waiting for me at
the end of the line I got I got it
because I was one of the experimental
children of my students in terms of
education they didn’t know where to have
me admitted to get proper education so –
all of that surprised I was admitted
into a government government College
where I came to know that education is
like the horns of a donkey it does not
exist I went to I went to my class in
the College on the first day and I sat
there from 8 o’clock to 4 p.m. in the
afternoon
the janitor came in and he told me what
are you doing here I told him I’m here
to study he told me this place no one
comes here to study you should go home
and that was the time first in my life I
had turned to ashes because I had no
source of learning
I had no source to continue my education
and my parents were off the idea that
this entire process is just because of
my anxiety so moving on my intermediate
came to an end because I I did not I had
not studied and it was a time where I
was a complete failure in my studies I
applied to every University in Karachi
including this one including this one
and almost all universities in Islamabad
and guess who got rejected from all
those universities moving on I got I got
admission into a university that was
near to my house based on self finance
and stuff like that and then I decided
that higher education is being taught
and I had to learn and I had to come out
of the ashes came the point when I
started started getting so much into
studies that I forgot about every single
aspect of my life that were going that
was going on and then came today when in
an in an auditorium such as this one
there was a guy speaking about
cybersecurity and ethical hacking I was
so inspired and impressed by that guy
that I went up to him I was like sir I
want to work with you I want to learn
from you he told me to send me to send
him my CV I did that and he and he
called me up and he told me ok I like
your CV it was one page of just an empty
CV he told me that hey come on let’s
again
to my surprise the guy that was talking
on the stage knowing all about
cybersecurity and ethical hacking knew
nothing six months down the line I was
again in flashes learning nothing from
the guy having no intellect about our
security and working as a clerk for free
for someone who I barely knew moving
forward I decided with a friend of mine
that I would self learn this entire
field so I did that I started self
learning but since I was an Ronix
engineering student there was less I
could learn by myself cybersecurity is
mostly about coding is about programming
it’s mostly about logics so at that
point in time I’d faced a lot of
difficulties a lot of difficulties but
this one good thing happened I found a
flaw in one of the websites that is
called Zendesk and the and they did they
talked they were sending me a reward all
the way from the US now in a family like
mine in from generations to generations
we don’t get presents from across the
country so that was the first present
that I was getting and guess what it was
– I was thinking that I would be getting
a bag full of dollars and whatnot and I
was awarded with a t-shirt that was red
in color and it had a sumo wrestler on
it but still kept on I kept on going but
that was the hardest part of my life
learning because I didn’t know anything
I didn’t know where to go I learned from
the people in the US programs about
cyber security and bug bounty hunting
told me to go away they told me to shut
up they told me that I was a time waster
they told me that I had nothing in my
mind that they could get help from again
I was ashes and one day something could
happen I tried to to Google and Facebook
I tried it for the limitless limited
knowledge that I have I try back into
Google and Facebook and to my surprise I
found one a very critical flaw and one
of faith then came the time when those
ashes turned into flames because I
believed that I could and I can learn
from what other people have already
posted online I moved forward but like I
told you my life has been a spiral of
ashes and flames so there was another
failure just waiting from me at the end
of the line one day an algorithm in
Google’s platform changed and my rank
was dropped from one to a hundred
thousand Google ranks researchers and
bug bounty hunters based on their
quality of research and add their
algorithm change and I was dropped from
one to a hundred thousand but still
there was hope I kept on going I kept on
receiving appreciations from different
kinds of companies and to my surprise I
was on in the top xx lists again but in
the beginning I said that everything
around you is a source of learning and
inspiration i forgot the fact that I’m
getting acknowledged by international
folks and people all over the world but
what am I giving back because a tree
that descends from its roots only
declines moving forward when you
our city had completed and I and I I got
I tried to get a job in one of the
companies I went there for an interview
and they hired me and after three months
I was fired fired for overthinking and
oversimplifying things now again ashes
then came the biggest break of my life I
saw because we we hackers we ethical
hackers we work at nights came the
biggest break of my life I saw an ad of
an incubator in the horror and I applied
to it I had a very stupid idea to
provide cybersecurity services to all
kinds of companies in Pakistan and there
were 11 other startups that were
pitching their idea there all the
developed products I couldn’t even spell
entrepreneurship at that time and to my
surprise the judges liked my idea so
much that I was the only startup that
was selected from Karachi to go to that
I had I had made good money by that time
I was I was one of the top hackers in
googles and hacker ones platform but
still like I told you my life is a
spiral from ashes to flames and there
was just another stupid thing waiting to
happen later in the time at that point I
tried to build my company in a way that
technical people do not as entrepreneurs
do that was the biggest mistake that I
did while building my company moving
forward I got an email from from a
company called dark reading which is
like the Forbes of cybersecurity that
because I my research had been well
known all around the world and I
published some papers and universities
as well that my research about security
and ethical hacking these guys were
gonna rank me the third best bug bounty
hunter of all time now that was a big
deal that was a really big deal I said
okay sure go ahead I didn’t think that
it was a big deal at that time but it
really was and to my surprise I got the
attention of media all over the world
that a some guy from Pakistan which is a
which is considered as third world
country is an ethical hacker going
places that projected a good good view
of the country well like I told you I
was in flames everywhere the next day
when the news came out I was in Africa
and I got the news from my for my
co-workers back at home that my
co-founder had left the company we had a
working company a company that was
generating revenue in terms of dollars
thousands of dollars a month and my
co-founder had left my company that was
a big setback for me
but still I moved on I decided to go and
tell the guy that if you’ve left the
company it’s okay I’m gonna I’m gonna
build another one no worries so most of
you most of you people who know me know
that the name of my company chain from
Sichuan to really accent is this hang on
when our I then I moved on forward and
my company we were generating revenues
again everything was very good we were
doing projects for different kinds of
people all over the world but like I
said ashes in flames all over the place
I did some work for a ad agency in Miami
it was a shady it was a super ethical
job there was nothing wrong with it but
these guys since they were at company
that ad companies are very good at
defaming and repetition management of
people these guys decided they thought
and they literally like they were asking
me to hack into someone else’s site
because they wanted the data but I but I
completely refused they threatened and
then threatened me that they will you
know disclose all my secrets and make
things up and everything like that all
my usernames and passwords online that
was the time I realized that I was a
patient of anxiety all my life it was
all all all around me all near me but
that was the real time I knew that
anxiety had gotten to me so I called up
my friend I told him I asked him that
what can I do what can I do to cure this
disease that that is continuously
haunting my life what do I do I’m
literally gonna throw up I literally
remember sitting in that incubator at
night and just crying for no no and my
friend told me we can recommend you
pills we can recommend you everything
but the brain that you have the brain
that got you the rank that you are at
today is gonna completely go away
I told him that okay I’m gonna try them
from this and today ladies and gentlemen
the name chamois Raman is working with
am I am the part of an advisory board
which is chaired by John McAfee of
McAfee securities I’m also I’m also a
part of European Union’s Cyber Security
Council in which Pakistan was never
considered but but like I told you but
like I told you the fact that everything
around you is a source of inspiration
and learning my inspiration comes from a
tree a tree we see trees every day but
we don’t analyze what they’re doing we
don’t think as they do a broken clock
tells time twice a day correct ants are
a source of inspiration in terms of hard
work a tree that descends from its roots
always declines so never forget where
you come from never forget where your
roots are thank you [Applause]
of learning and inspiration
so was for me and can it be for you my
name is Jamie Thomas and I’m an ethical
hacker an entrepreneur and up till a
couple of months ago a severe anxiety
patient most of you were born in Karachi
most of you were born in households that
were well-equipped
and developed in terms of technology in
terms of development in terms of
literature I opened my eyes in a small
200 yards house in Multan whose internal
street was as big as just the store and
I was a dumb kid I was so dumb that I
used to think that goats grow up into
cows life moved on and the story that
I’m going to tell you her today is that
my life is a spiral of ashes to flames
it is a continuous cycle in which I’ve
been burned down and flew up again
no worries so I was saying I don’t call
myself a Phoenix as of yet because I’m
yet to achieve the point where I
completely fail and are torn apart my
life is a story of complete failures
instead of success what you see about me
what you heard about me is not is not
the complete story so born in Multan in
a household that was old I was always
taught that education was the only thing
that I had to look forward to which was
mostly true but moving on
in 2003 me and my family due to my
father’s job we moved to Karachi here
I was scared of failing that’s why I
worked hard which and afterwards I got
to realize that being scared of failure
is not what you drive your motivation
here in Karachi I got admitted into into
an army public school and I studied hard
real hard without a second thought of
going anywhere else
studying hard made me in top of my class
I was popular among students but only as
a nerd there was nothing else there
moving on my life came to a stand point
where I thought that I had achieved of
something that my parents and everyone
would be proud of but led little did I
know that failure was waiting for me at
the end of the line I got I got it
because I was one of the experimental
children of my students in terms of
education they didn’t know where to have
me admitted to get proper education so –
all of that surprised I was admitted
into a government government College
where I came to know that education is
like the horns of a donkey it does not
exist I went to I went to my class in
the College on the first day and I sat
there from 8 o’clock to 4 p.m. in the
afternoon
the janitor came in and he told me what
are you doing here I told him I’m here
to study he told me this place no one
comes here to study you should go home
and that was the time first in my life I
had turned to ashes because I had no
source of learning
I had no source to continue my education
and my parents were off the idea that
this entire process is just because of
my anxiety so moving on my intermediate
came to an end because I I did not I had
not studied and it was a time where I
was a complete failure in my studies I
applied to every University in Karachi
including this one including this one
and almost all universities in Islamabad
and guess who got rejected from all
those universities moving on I got I got
admission into a university that was
near to my house based on self finance
and stuff like that and then I decided
that higher education is being taught
and I had to learn and I had to come out
of the ashes came the point when I
started started getting so much into
studies that I forgot about every single
aspect of my life that were going that
was going on and then came today when in
an in an auditorium such as this one
there was a guy speaking about
cybersecurity and ethical hacking I was
so inspired and impressed by that guy
that I went up to him I was like sir I
want to work with you I want to learn
from you he told me to send me to send
him my CV I did that and he and he
called me up and he told me ok I like
your CV it was one page of just an empty
CV he told me that hey come on let’s
again
to my surprise the guy that was talking
on the stage knowing all about
cybersecurity and ethical hacking knew
nothing six months down the line I was
again in flashes learning nothing from
the guy having no intellect about our
security and working as a clerk for free
for someone who I barely knew moving
forward I decided with a friend of mine
that I would self learn this entire
field so I did that I started self
learning but since I was an Ronix
engineering student there was less I
could learn by myself cybersecurity is
mostly about coding is about programming
it’s mostly about logics so at that
point in time I’d faced a lot of
difficulties a lot of difficulties but
this one good thing happened I found a
flaw in one of the websites that is
called Zendesk and the and they did they
talked they were sending me a reward all
the way from the US now in a family like
mine in from generations to generations
we don’t get presents from across the
country so that was the first present
that I was getting and guess what it was
– I was thinking that I would be getting
a bag full of dollars and whatnot and I
was awarded with a t-shirt that was red
in color and it had a sumo wrestler on
it but still kept on I kept on going but
that was the hardest part of my life
learning because I didn’t know anything
I didn’t know where to go I learned from
the people in the US programs about
cyber security and bug bounty hunting
told me to go away they told me to shut
up they told me that I was a time waster
they told me that I had nothing in my
mind that they could get help from again
I was ashes and one day something could
happen I tried to to Google and Facebook
I tried it for the limitless limited
knowledge that I have I try back into
Google and Facebook and to my surprise I
found one a very critical flaw and one
of faith then came the time when those
ashes turned into flames because I
believed that I could and I can learn
from what other people have already
posted online I moved forward but like I
told you my life has been a spiral of
ashes and flames so there was another
failure just waiting from me at the end
of the line one day an algorithm in
Google’s platform changed and my rank
was dropped from one to a hundred
thousand Google ranks researchers and
bug bounty hunters based on their
quality of research and add their
algorithm change and I was dropped from
one to a hundred thousand but still
there was hope I kept on going I kept on
receiving appreciations from different
kinds of companies and to my surprise I
was on in the top xx lists again but in
the beginning I said that everything
around you is a source of learning and
inspiration i forgot the fact that I’m
getting acknowledged by international
folks and people all over the world but
what am I giving back because a tree
that descends from its roots only
declines moving forward when you
our city had completed and I and I I got
I tried to get a job in one of the
companies I went there for an interview
and they hired me and after three months
I was fired fired for overthinking and
oversimplifying things now again ashes
then came the biggest break of my life I
saw because we we hackers we ethical
hackers we work at nights came the
biggest break of my life I saw an ad of
an incubator in the horror and I applied
to it I had a very stupid idea to
provide cybersecurity services to all
kinds of companies in Pakistan and there
were 11 other startups that were
pitching their idea there all the
developed products I couldn’t even spell
entrepreneurship at that time and to my
surprise the judges liked my idea so
much that I was the only startup that
was selected from Karachi to go to that
I had I had made good money by that time
I was I was one of the top hackers in
googles and hacker ones platform but
still like I told you my life is a
spiral from ashes to flames and there
was just another stupid thing waiting to
happen later in the time at that point I
tried to build my company in a way that
technical people do not as entrepreneurs
do that was the biggest mistake that I
did while building my company moving
forward I got an email from from a
company called dark reading which is
like the Forbes of cybersecurity that
because I my research had been well
known all around the world and I
published some papers and universities
as well that my research about security
and ethical hacking these guys were
gonna rank me the third best bug bounty
hunter of all time now that was a big
deal that was a really big deal I said
okay sure go ahead I didn’t think that
it was a big deal at that time but it
really was and to my surprise I got the
attention of media all over the world
that a some guy from Pakistan which is a
which is considered as third world
country is an ethical hacker going
places that projected a good good view
of the country well like I told you I
was in flames everywhere the next day
when the news came out I was in Africa
and I got the news from my for my
co-workers back at home that my
co-founder had left the company we had a
working company a company that was
generating revenue in terms of dollars
thousands of dollars a month and my
co-founder had left my company that was
a big setback for me
but still I moved on I decided to go and
tell the guy that if you’ve left the
company it’s okay I’m gonna I’m gonna
build another one no worries so most of
you most of you people who know me know
that the name of my company chain from
Sichuan to really accent is this hang on
when our I then I moved on forward and
my company we were generating revenues
again everything was very good we were
doing projects for different kinds of
people all over the world but like I
said ashes in flames all over the place
I did some work for a ad agency in Miami
it was a shady it was a super ethical
job there was nothing wrong with it but
these guys since they were at company
that ad companies are very good at
defaming and repetition management of
people these guys decided they thought
and they literally like they were asking
me to hack into someone else’s site
because they wanted the data but I but I
completely refused they threatened and
then threatened me that they will you
know disclose all my secrets and make
things up and everything like that all
my usernames and passwords online that
was the time I realized that I was a
patient of anxiety all my life it was
all all all around me all near me but
that was the real time I knew that
anxiety had gotten to me so I called up
my friend I told him I asked him that
what can I do what can I do to cure this
disease that that is continuously
haunting my life what do I do I’m
literally gonna throw up I literally
remember sitting in that incubator at
night and just crying for no no and my
friend told me we can recommend you
pills we can recommend you everything
but the brain that you have the brain
that got you the rank that you are at
today is gonna completely go away
I told him that okay I’m gonna try them
from this and today ladies and gentlemen
the name chamois Raman is working with
am I am the part of an advisory board
which is chaired by John McAfee of
McAfee securities I’m also I’m also a
part of European Union’s Cyber Security
Council in which Pakistan was never
considered but but like I told you but
like I told you the fact that everything
around you is a source of inspiration
and learning my inspiration comes from a
tree a tree we see trees every day but
we don’t analyze what they’re doing we
don’t think as they do a broken clock
tells time twice a day correct ants are
a source of inspiration in terms of hard
work a tree that descends from its roots
always declines so never forget where
you come from never forget where your
roots are thank you [Applause]
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