Facebook Rewards 10-Year-Old $10K For Hacking Instagram
MENLO PARK (CBS SF) -- A computer wiz kid from Finland is the youngest techie to win Facebook's hacking reward.
Facebook rewarded a boy named Jani $10,000 after the Helinski-based youngster identified a security flaw in its photo-sharing application Instagram.
According to the Finnish newspaper Italehti, Jani discovered a vulnerability that would have enabled him to delete anyone's comments.
"I would have been able to eliminate anyone, even Justin Bieber's comments from there," said Jani.
Instagram has fixed the flaw.
Jani hopes for a career in Internet security one day.
"It would be my dream job," he says. "Security is really important."
In fact, Yani and his twin brother have been searching for security holes for a while now, but this is the first one that garnered any money. When he told his classmates about the reward money, no one believe him.
"They were really surprised and amazed," he laughed. "They never knew that a prize like this existed."
He says he'll use the money to buy a new bike, a football, and get new computers for him and his brother.
Facebook has rewarded than $4 million to people who have found security bugs since 2011.
CBSSF.com writer, producer Jan Mabry is also executive producer and host of The Bronze Report. She lives in Northern California. Follow her on Twitter @janmabr.
