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A 10-year-old boy from Helsinki was handed $10,000 by Instagram’s owner Facebook after he discovered a bug within the social media site.
According to Finnish news site Iltalehti, the boy, known as Jani, found a vulnerability in Instagram’s code that enabled him to delete the text that users posted alongside their photos.
The young coder – who is still three years away from being old enough to have an Instagram account of his own – reported the bug to Facebook via email, with the social networking giant then offering a cash reward as part of their “bug bounty” programme, which rewards those who find faults.
The programme was launched in 2011, and Facebook has paid out more than £296 million in bug bounties.
Instagram issued a fix for the vulnerability within two days.
Jani told Finnish media that he and his twin brother have been enthusiastic coders for some time, and have regularly searched for security flaws.
He dreams of a career as a security expert, but plans to spend his reward on a new bike and a football.
