Facebook just rewarded $10,000 to a hacker — who’s not even old enough to sign up on Facebook. The Helsinki-based 10-year-old boy, called Jani, impressed Mark Zuckerberg by hacking the Instagram account, the photo-sharing platform owned by Facebook. Hence, he received $10,000 from Facebook for identifying a security bug.
Jani uncovered a flaw that allowed him to get into Instagram’s servers and delete any written content posted by Instagram users, Finnish news site Iltalehti reported. “I would have been able to eliminate anyone, even Justin Bieber,” the genius kid told Iltalehti.
Facebook’s Youngest White hat Hacker:
An aspiring security expert, Jani sent his discovery to Facebook via email. He verified his report by deleting a comment the company posted on a test account. The bug was resolved at the end of February. In March, the tech giant informed Jani of the fix and gave him his monetary reward.
Jani told Iltalehti that he was initially interested in coding video games but then “started to get interested in information security and started watching Youtube videos on it.”
Jani and his twin brother have been discovering security flaws in other websites but they haven’t been significant enough to justify a payout, until this one. This was the first time when they decided to officially alert the social media giant, according to their father.
This is not the first time when Instagram had a critical security flaw. In December 2015, Wesley Wineberg, an independent security researcher, participating in Facebook’s bug bounty program, managed to crack his way through Instagram defenses and almost get complete control over the service.
Facebook’s bug bounty program welcomes anyone to find bugs and flaws and offers cash rewards to people who identify and report legitimate security risks. In 2015, Facebook paid out a total of $936,000 to 210 researchers, averaging about $1,780 per submission.
Jani ousted a 13-year-old to become the youngest ever recipient of Facebook’s bug bounty program. Jani plans to use the reward to buy a new bike, football gear, and new computers for his brothers.