Zuckerberg’s Facebook page hacked to show security glitch
Facebook has helped the FBI to bust an international hacking ring, which allegedly stole the credit card details of 11 million computer users.
When Palestinian cyber-security expert Khalil Shreateh was brushed off by Facebook after reporting a bug, he decided to show them rather than tell them about it.
Shreateh hacked into the Facebook page of founder Mark Zuckerberg and wrote, "I had no other choice…after all the reports I sent to Facebook team."
Facebook took notice within minutes and contacted the hacker, while taking down the post.
The company reportedly fixed the bug, but refused to give Shreateh the $500 awarded to those who find glitches — largely on a technicality.
Facebook security team member Matt Jones explained on the website Hacker News why the Palestinian wasn't eligible for the money:
"In order to qualify for a payout you must 'make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations' and 'use a test account instead of a real account when investigating bugs.'"
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The native Arabic speaker had warned Facebook's security team earlier, writing: “My name is Khalil Shreateh. I finished school with B.A degree in Information Systems . I would like to report a bug in your main site (www.facebook.com) which i discovered it…The bug allow Facebook users to share links to other facebook users, I tested it on Sarah.Goodin wall and I got success post.”
Jones did say that Shreateh would be rewarded next time if he followed the bug reporting guidelines.
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