Facebook Bug Finder/Hacker Gets Rewarded

Facebook might have stiffed Palestinian security researcher Khalil Shreateh, but the Internet community has come to the aid. The Good Samaritan hacker is receiving heaps of financial support from those who believe, the uncovering of the Facebook glitch deserves some type of accolade.

Khalil Shreateh discovered that absolutely anyone, who isn’t even on the friends list, can post on the Timeline of others. He then reported the flaw but was initially dismissed by the Facebook security team. This made him post a message on the billionaire’s wall to prove the existence of the bug.

Shreateh apologized to Zuckerberg by sending him a message on the chief executive officer’s private account, saying he was having a tough getting the attention of his team. “Sorry for breaking your privacy,” Shreateh said in the post.

Facebook repaired the glitch almost instantly, but in the aftermath of the humiliating episode, made it clear that Khalil would not be paid the 500 dollar reward the bounty program offers to those who notify the social networking site about such errors. The site is standing by its policy of not rewarding the researchers who have tested bugs against real users.

The chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust, Marc Maiffret is propelled his fellow hackers to raise a $10,000 reward for the unemployed Palestinian after Facebook refused to compensate him. Maiffret set the ball rolling with $3,000 of his personal money after appearing on CNN to talk about the vulnerability that Shreateh found. Since then, over seventy nine people have contributed nearly $9,000 in the past day to an account that will be given to Shreateh once it reaches its goal of $10,000.

Shreateh was extremely grateful for the support he had received. “I appreciate it, and my best wishes to everyone out there,” he said. The young hacker has been listed as unemployed on his Facebook page, said that he received job offerings in the security business, but is yet to accept one.