A 10-year-old boy from Finland has collected a 'bug bounty' from Facebook to the tune of $10,000. The child, Jani, had discovered that he could delete the comments put up by any user on Instagram.
While Jani isn't technically allowed to be on the platform for another three years, Facebook, which owns Instagram, asked him to verify his claim with a test account. VentureBeat reported that Jani discovered the bug and sent Facebook a mail in February. The claim was verified and the bug was fixed the same month, the reported added. He was paid $10,000 in March as a reward for identifying the bug.
Jani wants to be a security researcher when he grows up. "It would be my dream job. Security is very important," he was quoted as saying.
Speaking to the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, Jani said he was going to use the reward money to buy a new bicycle, some football equipment and computers for his brothers.
The BBC reported that Facebook has so far paid over $4.3 million to programmers who have reported security flaws and bugs to the company. Other companies like Trend Micro, Google and Microsoft also have similar programmes.
