Boy, 10, paid £7,000 'bug bounty' for hacking Instagram

The boy was given a 'bug bounty' after exposing the flaw
Getty
Mark Chandler4 May 2016

A 10-year-old boy has been paid a "bug bounty" of £7,000 after hacking into Instagram and discovering a security flaw.

The young hacker, named as Jani from Helsinki, found he could delete any posted text he wanted and reported the issue to Instagram owners Facebook.

According to Finnish website Iltalehti, he was given a payment of £7,000 by the company in March after demonstrating the bug on a test acocunt.

The boy, who taught himself how to code using videos on YouTube, told the website he could delete Instagram comments and captions from anyone, "even Justin Bieber".

Jani, who dreams of becoming an IT security expert, said he now plans to spend the money on a football and new bike.

His payout is part of Facebook's bug bounty programme, which rewards people who point out security vulnerabilities in its sites.

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