He wasn't looking for fame, just giving Facebook's chief a hard time
An Arab living near Hebron hacked into the personal page of Facebook's head honcho Mark Zuckerberg:
After discovering a privacy bug on Facebook, unemployed Palestinian programmer Khalil Shreateh said he just wanted to collect the traditional $500 bounty the social network giant offers to those who voluntarily expose its glitches.And what would that be? Let's guess: no matter what Zuckerberg's political standings, he detests a guy of Jewish descent. Or, he just has no respect for other people's businesses. And who's giving him job offerings? What if terrorist organizations are the ones? A man who hacks into other people's property is not somebody deserving of a job in electronics.
But when Facebook ignored his first two reports, Shreateh took his message to the top — and hacked into CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal page to prove his point.
"Sorry for breaking your privacy," he wrote the Facebook founder, "I has no other choice to make after all the reports I sent to Facebook team ... as you can see iam not in your friend list and yet i can post to your timeline."
The stunt cost the 30-year-old Palestinian the bounty, but earned him praise — and numerous job offers — for being able to get to the boss of the world's most ubiquitous social network.
Shreateh, who lives near the West Bank city of Hebron and has been unable to find a job since graduating two years ago with a degree in information technology, told Facebook that he found a way that allowed anyone to post on anyone else's wall. "I told them that you have a vulnerability and you need to close it," he told The Associated Press. "I wasn't looking to be famous. I just wanted to make a point to Mark (Zuckerberg)."
The bug — and Facebook's response to it — has become a talking point in information security circles, with many speculating that the Palestinian could have helped himself to thousands of dollars had he chosen to sell the information on the black market.And maybe that's his real intention.
Labels: communications, islam, Israel, Moonbattery
