Reuben Paul, a 12-year old genius has become a sensation in the tech world. While boys of his age are stepping into the fantasy world of Hogwarts and the likes, this sixth grader is already an accomplished hacker, app developer, and cybersecurity expert.
Paul is involved in several activities to increase awareness around cybersecurity. He hacks electronic devices in households to demonstrate how they can be exploited to spy on internet users and even harm people. Paul goes to a Texas public charter school, Harmony School of Science.
The young cybersecurity expert has been working in the field with ‘credential harvesting’, which means stealing passwords. The hacking skills empower you with a great power but the power comes with great responsibility. Paul wants to become a good cyberspy professional, and for that he actively teams up with experts that have already made a name for themselves in the space of cybersecurity.
Reuben hopes that when people see him use his skills, they will realise the importance of cyber security. With several data breaches, cyberbullying and other kinds of attacks, it is important for us to teach students about the dangers of cyber breaches so they can protect themselves better.
Reuben’s father, Mano Paul recognized his son’s passion for computers in his early age. While speaking with the media, Mano Paul said that Rebuen started using words like firewall when he just five years old. According to his father, Reuben's passion for cybersecurity began at a young age and it has never stopped growing.
Mano Paul also works in the cybersecurity field as a CEO of SecuRisk Solutions, his company focuses on information security training, consulting and custom product development. It was his father who introduced Reuben to the wonderful world of programming.
When Reuben was in his second grade, he was assigned a project which required him to design a learning game. Other students walked in with the hand-drawn board and card games, Reuben showed up in the class with a full-blown app called ‘Shuriken Math’. The app was written in Objective-C as a prototype, the same is being re-written using Swift for the App Store.
After his debut app, his skills attracted a lot of attention from others. With the help of his father, Reuben has developed his first cybersecurity app called Cracker Proof. The app teaches how to build strong passwords in a fun and educational way. It is one of the several cybersecurity-related gaming apps available on Apple’s app store.