A frustrated computer expert went out of his way to prove a point to Facebook, after the social media giant ignored his multiple warnings about a security flaw on the site, claim reports.
The hacker from Palestine discovered a glitch – allowing any stranger post on someone's wall without being in their friends' list – and wanted to warn the site of an obvious security breach.
When he discovered the bug, Khalil Shreateh initially tried to report it to Facebook's security team – proving his point by writing on the wall of a friend of the Facebook founder.
A computer expert hacked into Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page to expose the site's vulnerability
But instead of thanking Shreateh and remedying the issue, Facebook insisted there wasn't a problem.
Shreateh ultimately used the glitch to hack his way onto Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page and wrote, in a post now removed: "Sorry for breaking your privacy. I had no other choice… after all the reports I sent to Facebook team."
Finally taking notice of the issue, Facebook immediately contacted Shreateh to know how he had been able to hack Zuckerberg's page, and quickly fixed the issue.
However, because of the methods the hacker used to finally convince Facebook of the threat, the social media giant denied him a bounty fee usually given to programmers who report holes in the site’s security.
Facebook did not pay the $500+ fee amount to Shreateh because they cited him violating the site's terms of service – despite asking him to continue to help them find bugs.
Matt Jones from Facebook’s security team wrote on Hacker News that Shreateh will not be getting his money.
"In order to qualify for a payout you must make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations" and "use a test account instead of a real account when investigating bugs,” Jones wrote.
"[We] will pay out for future reports from him,’ writes Jones, ‘if they're found and demonstrated within these guidelines."