Social media giant Facebook has paid a $10,000 reward to a 10-year-old Finnish boy for finding a glitch in its picture sharing app Instagram.
According to Reuters, Jani, whose last name was not released for privacy reasons, is the youngest ever recipient of Facebook's "bug bounty", which offers cash rewards to people who find bugs or weaknesses in Facebook's digital infrastructure. That includes the Facebook-owned Instagram.
"I wanted to see if Instagram's comment field could stand malicious code. Turns out it couldn't," Jani told Finland's Iltalehti newspaper.
Facebook said the glitch was fixed in February and the reward was paid in March.
Jani, who is still too young to have a Facebook or Instagram account of his own, said he learned coding from YouTube videos and found a way to delete user comments from Instagram accounts.
"I could have deleted anyone's comments from there. Even Justin Bieber's," he told Iltalehti.
He said he was thinking about a career in data security, but for now his plans include buying a new bike and a football with his reward money.
Facebook's bug bounty program welcomes anyone to find bugs and flaws, and offers cash rewards to problems that are significant, similar to Google's own security rewards program. According to the most recent release from Facebook, the company received over 13,000 submissions from researchers in 2015 alone, 526 of which were valid reports.
In 2015, Facebook paid out a total of $936,000 to 210 researchers, averaging about $1,780 per submission.
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Wow, I never knew this! It's indeed a motivation for anyone who is interested in programming and also social media... The boy is a genius!
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know they have a bug bounty program, that's crazy! I'm sure a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon and spend most of their time searching for bugs. It's a good move for facebook because that doesn't just mean they're trying to improve their apps but also, they're trying to protect people by offering money to those who can do potential harm.
ReplyDelete10 years old and hacking! IT's are getting younger and younger now. Called to mind these young men who hacked into our government websites to prove they are not secure.
ReplyDeleteI think this move by Facebook to reward this hacker is good. It provides an incentive to geniuses out there to work hand in hand with them to find bugs in their system.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually a great way to make sure that their sites are secure, with a prize, people are encourage to find faults and not use them for personal gain.
ReplyDeleteWow, I really admire youngsters being reported that they were able to catch such amazing discoveries! Who would have thought that a 10 year old out of curiosity can find that glitch, huh?!
ReplyDeleteTechnology nowadays is just weird. 10 years old boy hacking and he is being rewarded again with such huge amount. A global village indeed we are
ReplyDeleteI'm flabbergasted! A 10-year old kid? He's such a genius! And he only learns from just watching Youtube videos. That's amazing!
ReplyDeleteTechnology is so accessible today and kids get a hang out it very early. Totally upto us to protect them from the evils of internet.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to see a 10 year old kid find a bug. It's also nice that he got rewarded for his efforts.
ReplyDeleteAge really doesn't matter any more. Kids, elders all are riding high on the technology wave. Clever boy!
ReplyDeleteWOW!! I didn't even know that such a glitch even existed. He's really a smart kid and I'm loving his plans for his money. :)
ReplyDeleteive read this the other and was quite surprised! a few companies have done this before i believe
ReplyDeleteI have read this in the paper a couple of days back and surprisingly when that boy is not using much of internet.
ReplyDeleteWell go Jani, I op he enjoy his new football and bike and reaches all his dreams in the future.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a lot of money. I wish I was a good hacker too and try their program.
ReplyDelete