Facebook rewarded a 10-year-old with $10,000 for finding Instagram security flaw

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/tech...instagram-security-flaw/ar-BBsCQiS?li=BBnbfcL

Earlier this year, a 10-year-old — who is not even old enough to sign up on Facebook — impressed Mark Zuckerberg by hacking Instagram, the photo-sharing application owned by Facebook. The Helsinki-based boy genius, called Jani, received $10,000 from Facebook for identifying a security bug, Forbes reported.

Jani uncovered a flaw that allowed him to delete any written content on the social media platform by altering the code. "I would have been able to eliminate anyone, even Justin Bieber," the wunderkind told Finnish publication Iltalehti.

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, a spokesperson told Forbes. 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 plans to use the reward to buy a new bike, football gear, and new computers for his brothers, he said in the interview with Iltalehti. He ousted a 13-year-old to become the youngest ever recipient of Facebook's bug bounty program, which offers rewards to people who identify and report legitimate security risks.

Since it launched in 2011, Facebook's bug bounty has awarded over $4.3 million to more than 800 researchers. The program determines the payout based on a bug's risk, rather than how complex it may be. In 2015 alone, 210 researchers received $936,000 with an average payout of $1,780.
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The kid seems to have a great future ahead of him. What do you think?
 
This kind is smart. Definitely need this guy in the world, definitely be easy for him to get a job.
 
Kudos to the kid, I hope he invests the money wisely.
 
I'm starting to think this story maybe created by Facebook by using the kids name, and secretly creating a security flaw for the kid to fix to generate more positive news about how generous Facebook is at rewarding young people for their hard work.

I read on different tech blog that Facebook has been getting a lot of bad publicity because of technical problems, losing popularity with young people, people deleting their Facebook account, privacy concerns, and news of Facebook hiding/blocking conservative news in the Facebook feed, so I think there is a chance that this story of a 10 year old discovering a security flaw was created by Facebook to try to create more positive new stories about how Facebook reward young people for finding a security flaws in their websites.
 
froggyboy604 said:
I'm starting to think this story maybe created by Facebook by using the kids name, and secretly creating a security flaw for the kid to fix to generate more positive news about how generous Facebook is at rewarding young people for their hard work.

I read on different tech blog that Facebook has been getting a lot of bad publicity because of technical problems, losing popularity with young people, people deleting their Facebook account, privacy concerns, and news of Facebook hiding/blocking conservative news in the Facebook feed, so I think there is a chance that this story of a 10 year old discovering a security flaw was created by Facebook to try to create more positive new stories about how Facebook reward young people for finding a security flaws in their websites.
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it be sleazy, but can work.
 
lb said:
This is about Instagram though. Not Facebook.
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Instagram is owned by Facebook. Instagram is a different sites, but still owned by the same company which is Facebook. I think a lot of people now think of Facebook and Instagram being the same company sort of like how most people think of YouTube, Blogger, Android, and Google being run by Google.
 
Oh, you'd be surprised to see how many people have no idea that Instagram and Whatsapp are owned by Facebook. I just asked today in a kik group and at least 20 people did not know. I even know some people who use Android phones, but don't know that Android is owned by Google.
 
lb said:
Oh, you'd be surprised to see how many people have no idea that Instagram and Whatsapp are owned by Facebook. I just asked today in a kik group and at least 20 people did not know. I even know some people who use Android phones, but don't know that Android is owned by Google.
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Most people who read this article, and similar articles online would probably figure out that Facebook owns Instagram because Facebook rewarded the kid for fixing the security flaw. Facebook does not reward people for fixing security flaws on other sites which Facebook does not own, and does not have a close relationship with.

I think most people who watch the news on a daily basis from a big news company like CNN, ABC, CBS, etc, or read the news online from Yahoo News, and other mainstream news sites probably heard of Facebook buying Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Google Android is listed as the operating system on most boxes, websites, and ads for Google Android smartphone and tablets, and the sales staff at a store sometimes say that a device runs Google Android, so people who buy a mobile devices to use apps, games, and services like Netflix would most likely know that their device uses the Google Android operating system. Users of Google Play need to sign-in with their Google Gmail account, so people would eventually figure out that Google runs Android.

TV news also talks about Google Android in their tech stories, and when talking about Google stocks and earnings in the Finance section of their TV news show.
 
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