BY LUCY CAULKETT
A 10-year-old genius from Finland, has been given $10,000 (£7,000) following his discovery of a security flaw in image-sharing social network Instagram, the BBC have reported.
Young Jani, who is still ineligible to even join the site for at least 3 more years, discovered a bug that enabled him to delete comments made by other users. Facebook immediately rectified the problem once it was brought to their attention.
The issue was “quickly” fixed after being discovered, said Facebook, which owns Instagram.
Jani was subsequently paid the huge sum, rare for a boy his age, -making him the youngest ever recipient of the firm’s “bug bounty” prize. The genius emailed facebook when he discovered the bug, prompting security engineers from the company to challenge him to prove his theory via a test account set up for him. Facebook told the BBC that it had paid $4.3m to bug bounty recipients since 2011, though this little child has earned a real wager for his genius capabilities.
The boy, from Helsinki, told reporters in his country that he planned to use the money to buy a new bike, football equipment and computers for his brothers, but he will surely be smart enough to keep more of the money in a bank. Someone like his parents will be wise enough to advise him appropriately, that is, if they don’t help him with the spending.
His exceptional display of expertise is a challenge not only to kids his age, but also to teenagers and adults of all ages. How he developed the extraordinary skill remains a mystery, but it is most probable that this kid is an extremely talented boy who has been honing his gifts steadily under the advise and supervision of an adult-probably one or both of his parents.
What a treasure and inspiration this 10 year old Finnish boy is to the Universe.