CNN reports that an unemployed researcher used a five-year old laptop to post a message on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s timeline, after he was unable to convince Facebook employees that there was a security hole in the social network.
Showing holes to the security team can lead to cash payouts from Facebook, but in this case, Facebook decided not to make a payout because the man broke Facebook’s terms of service by hacking a user’s account.
3 Questions That Arise From This Story
1. A flaw was found in Facebook using a five-year old laptop? Was the flaw that nobody updated the “poke” source code since 2008, because even then it was lame and useless? Unless *cough* you wanted to poke holes in Mark Zuckerberg’s account…
2. You’re still here after that last line? Thank you! If you like us on Facebook, we’ll pretend to be your friend, and not in the way that kid you knew in Kindergarten pretends to be your friend while secretly robbing your house each time you check in at Dunkin Donuts or your local Exxon station (to buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts).
3. How does Facebook think white hats (that’s computer geek terminology for hackers who help companies) are supposed to hack into Facebook to expose flaws without hacking into users’ accounts? Is there something else to look at on Facebook that is not a human or corporate user’s account? (If so, fill us in, because we’re kind of tired of looking at photos of drunk people who aren’t drunk enough to be doing something stupid like eating Dunkin Donuts out of the dog’s water bowl.)
