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A balmy Saturday afternoon in Delhi’s Connaught Place. Cut to an up-market café in the Inner Circle. It’s too early for the evening’s party crowd. Young couples fill most seats, cooing sweet nothings. The smell of hookah lingers. My guest is a <keyword id="32574" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="hacker">hacker</keyword>. He recently took down an entire travel startup. Ever heard of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=StayUncle&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">StayUncle</a>? Yeah, them. 
 
For the uninitiated, this New Delhi-based startup has tied up with hotels. Unmarried couples can rent rooms here for a duration as short as 8-10 hours. The idea here is to help them find affordable accommodation, minus the judgmental stares. 
 
My chap arrives. Nope, nothing like Hollywood. No hoodies, no hesitation, no mystery music in the background. He’s a 16 year old school kid. I offer him a seat, positively shocked. What followed would make for a killer film-script. 
 
“I got a call. He asked me to take down <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=StayUncle&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">StayUncle</a> and offered Rs. 5000 ($75) in return. I did it at 11 pm that night. 30 minutes in, I started reading about them (<keyword id="3320068" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="StayUncle">StayUncle</keyword>). It was a noble idea. I stopped the attack mid-way, and contacted Sanchit. The employer called me several times the next morning. I didn’t pick up his call ever again.” 
 This lad had taken down more sites than he can recall. I ask him how it feels to work as an online mercenary, accepting money from anonymous clients. “It’s common in the field of <keyword id="6357115" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="hacking">hacking</keyword>. My targets are usually individual sites. They run on free hosting. This was the first business site I took down.” 
 
While this may startle most of us, he says getting these 'assignments' isn't really tough, mentioning a forum where such work is readily available, <a href="http://hackforums.net/">HackForums</a>. It’s an online forum to connect with a '<a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=h4x0r">h4x0r</a>' (hacker). Drop in a message. Someone accepts your assignment. Once the job is done, you pay the money. This is one among hundreds of such forums, and it’s not even Darknet. 
 
“Everybody is anonymous. People are known only by their usernames. I typically never disclose my number. I just do my initial research, and quote the price. This guy asked if I was Indian, and then for my contact number.” 
 StayUncle founder-CEO <keyword id="3320069" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sanchit-Sethi">Sanchit Sethi</keyword> confirms the incident. “It was 18th of April this year. I got a call from a hacker. He admitted to taking our site down, and that he was hired by one of our competitors. He said they might do it again.” 
 
Well, they did. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=StayUncle&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">StayUncle</a>’s website was pulled down by another brute-force attack a month and a half back. 
 
“We were going crazy. Finally, I asked help from one of my cousins, a senior tech guy. He found all our ports were shut down, our securities disabled. Thankfully, our database was safe. Somebody clearly hacked into our systems again”, Sethi says. 
 
This isn't the first time. App-based taxi hailing service <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Ola&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Ola</a> was allegedly hacked by a group by the name ‘TeamUnknown’. <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword> denied its database was ever breached and that any hacker group ever contacted them. It did admit though that the test server, which is used internally, had been hacked. In recent months, hackers have exploited security flaws in several other Indian startups including online restaurant search provider <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Zomato&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Zomato</a> and music streaming app Gaana. Most Indian startups still remain apprehensive of ethical hackers. 
 
My guest says brute-force attacks don’t help now. “A <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Paytm&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Paytm</a>, Flipkart or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a> has multiple servers. If one goes down, the other takes off. That’s server rotation. If you don’t have a lot of servers, you can’t take down theirs”, he observes. 
 
The hour seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. My guest stood up to leave. We shook hands and parted. 
 
A simple Google search will reveal a breeding ground for script kiddies. Most have little knowledge of the tools they use or how they work. These are ready-made and easily-found tools on the internet that can do some serious harm. The more hardcore ones can dedicate hours a day scanning the internet for computers that are vulnerable to a security hole. They can then exploit that and use what is known as a 'rootkit' to give them 'root' (or total control) over a computer. 
 
With the likes of Ola and Paytm waking up to the value of bug bounty programmes, denial seems to be in the air. As evening fell, I couldn’t help but feel worried. 
 
In an age where you can set up shop at the touch of a button, that’s all it takes to bring down one as well. A guy, a laptop, and 5000 bucks. 
 
<a href="https://sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/anonymous.jpg?w=780&amp;h=408&amp;crop=1">Image Source</a>

I
met the 16 year old Hacker who took down StayUncle for Rs. 5000

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=india&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">India</a> is as progressed as it is conservative. 
 
Certain topics are still treated like they’re taboo – the chief among them being young couples looking for some privacy. 
 
Though not illegal, this is still viewed as an act that is against ‘Indian culture’ as has been drilled in everyone’s heads. 
 The result of this is physical attacks on <keyword id="1852827" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="unmarried-couples">unmarried couples</keyword> by not just by the police but also by vigilante groups. Case in point- the widely criticised raid conducted by the Mumbai police where they detained over 13 couples after searching hotels in Madh island. 
 
That’s not all. Couples engaging in any sort of public display of affection in pubs, beaches, gardens or parks have also time and again been assaulted by these vigilante groups- making it a whole lot harder for consenting adults to find a room for themselves- especially if they’re unmarried. 
 Enter <keyword id="3320068" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="StayUncle">StayUncle</keyword>, the Delhi-based startup which aims to put an end to this problem and help unmarried couples find a room in Mumbai and Delhi, without feeling uncomfortable. 
 
 
 
The company has tied up with hotels where unmarried couples can rent rooms for short durations such as 8-10 hours. 
 A brainchild of <keyword id="3320069" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sanchit-Sethi">Sanchit Sethi</keyword>, a BITS- Pilani graduate, this one-year-old startup initially started with a business plan that would offer hotel rooms for short durations to travellers. As most hotels take reservations on a 24-hour basis, taking a room for a few hours would end up being an expensive affair. 
 
However, Sethi decided to rethink his business plan once he noticed that most of the requests he was getting were from unmarried couples looking for rooms. 
 
Determined to start afresh, this time Sethi’s focus was only unmarried couples. 
 
The reason behind that, according to him was to change the mindset of hoteliers. 
 
In a phone interview with Quartz, he said, “There is no law in India that prohibits (unmarried) couples from renting a room. As long as you have a government identity card, you should be given a room. We don’t live in the 1950s anymore.” 
 
Ace Residency, a budget hotel in Delhi’s Greater Kaliash area partnered with StayUncle, becoming the first hotel to allow rooms to be booked for unmarried couples. The company also received its first angel investment of a few lakhs from Ajay Naqvi, the country marketing manager for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=airbnb&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Airbnb</a>. 
 
 
 
Since then, the company has only grown, tying up with 34 other hotels in the capital and 10 hotels in Mumbai. Even Trident and Oberoi have joined them. 
 
But, the process of conversion is still not easy as it sounds. According to Sethi, only two or three hotels eventually sign up, out of the 10 hotels they speak to. He attributes it to the fear of going against the culture of the country. 
 
Many hoteliers are also reluctant to join because they want to avoid the “unnecessary hassle from cops.” 
 
Regardless, StayUncle has catered to some 200 couples in the last three months. An eight-hour stay at hotels listed on StayUncle will cost one anywhere between Rs 1400 to Rs 5000. 
 
As he progresses, Sethi is very sure about two things- not offering massive discounts and ensuring complete privacy for his customers. 
 
Additionally, in order to help build an ecosystem around unmarried couples, StayUncle also intends to help young people plan surprise parties or travel. 
 
It's heartening to see a startup focus on issues that matter and do its part on ending social stigma related to a topic that doesn't need it in the first place. 
 
Image credit: StayUncle

StayUncle: This bold startup aims to help unmarried couples
find a room without being harassed

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I met the 16 year old Hacker who took down StayUncle for Rs. 5000

Saikat Pyne

StayUncle: This bold startup aims to help unmarried couples find a room without being harassed

Poulomi Das

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