10yr old hacks Instagram, wins $10,000

He is 10, not even old enough to sign up on Facebook but he knows all the technicalities to hack into Facebook owned photo sharing app Instagram. The Helsinki-based boy genius, called Jani is Facebook’s youngest white hat hacker who recently received $10,000 for identifying a security bug in Instagram, Forbes reported.

The Finnish tabloid Iltalehti reported that Jani found a means to infiltrate Instagam’s servers and delete text that any user has posted to accompany their photos."I would have been able to eliminate anyone, even Justin Bieber," the genius told the publication.

Jani,who plans to use the money to buy a new bike, football gear, and new computers is an aspiring security expert. He sent his discovery to Facebook via email and verified his report by deleting a comment the company posted on a test account, a spokesperson told Forbes. The bug was resolved at the end of February. In March, the tech giant informed Jani of the fix and gave him his monetary reward.

The problem lay in a private application programming interface (the slice of code allowing certain outside access) that wasn’t properly checking the person deleting the comment was the same one who posted it, the spokesperson added.

Jani has ousted a 13-year-old to become the youngest ever recipient of Facebook's bug bounty program, which offers rewards to people who identify and report legitimate security risks. The bug bounty programme, as per Facebook’s latest update has awarded more than $4.3 million to more than 800 researchers around the world. In 2015, it paid $936,000 to 210 researchers for a total of 526 reports.