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Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

#11

Post by macspoofing »

chrisacky wrote: post #2

Although this is blogspam, it's a blogspam that I can actually support... This is being covered a lot more widely because FB didn't just pay the guy. I know it wasn't about money for FB, but this is easily done a lot more damage then they would have expected and because of their inadequate handling of a single bug report, I can only feel satisfied as I think this will go down as a good case study of how not to be so…

I can understand FB. They are trying to enforce some (reasonable) guidelines around white hat disclosure, namely, don't mess user data!

I think they should be a little lenient in this case since it seems like he messed with only Zuckerberg's account, and because of the PR around it.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

#13

Post by rgbrenner »

macspoofing wrote: post #11
chrisacky wrote: post #2

Although this is blogspam, it's a blogspam that I can actually support... This is being covered a lot more widely because FB didn't just pay the guy. I know it wasn't about money for FB, but this is easily done a lot more damage then they would have expected and because of their inadequate handling of a single bug report, I can only feel satisfied as I think this will go down as a good case study of how not to be so…

I can understand FB. They are trying to enforce some (reasonable) guidelines around white hat disclosure, namely, don't mess user data! I think they should be a little lenient in this case since it seems like he messed with only Zuckerberg's account, and because of the PR around it.

"they should be a little lenient in this case since it seems like he messed with only Zuckerberg's account"

No, he posted to another persons account first (that was his initial bug report). Then he posted again to Zuckerberg's account when they ignored him.

Also, it's too late to prevent the bad PR.. paying him now will only tell every other hacker that they can do whatever they want to facebook accounts/users, as long as they embarrass facebook with it afterward.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

#14

Post by [deleted] »

macspoofing wrote: post #11
chrisacky wrote: post #2

Although this is blogspam, it's a blogspam that I can actually support... This is being covered a lot more widely because FB didn't just pay the guy. I know it wasn't about money for FB, but this is easily done a lot more damage then they would have expected and because of their inadequate handling of a single bug report, I can only feel satisfied as I think this will go down as a good case study of how not to be so…

I can understand FB. They are trying to enforce some (reasonable) guidelines around white hat disclosure, namely, don't mess user data! I think they should be a little lenient in this case since it seems like he messed with only Zuckerberg's account, and because of the PR around it.

[deleted]

Re: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

#15

Post by shortstuffsushi »

shortcj wrote: post #9

Facebook is a top tier company; they don't pay people attention, much less real money, without a track record of like Harvard or Stanford already.

I really don't think that's an fair allegation to just throw out there. Care to back that up with some evidence?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

#16

Post by beat »

swang wrote: post #10
jzelinskie wrote: post #6

Why don't people just send things in their native language? If the platform for communication is serious (like a place to report security vulnerabilities), I would imagine they would spend the time/money to get a real translation if one was needed. Even Google Translate probably could've done a better job than this guy's original report.

Whatever language he was going to send it in was not going to get parsed anyways since he barely communicated any relevant information in his emails. The Facebook employee who replied to the email handled it very poorly, but the guy who found this bug also handled it very poorly by not actually sending any details about what he did.

Exactly. A step-by-step with screenshots doesn't require translation. I've worked with a lot of brilliant programmers with very poor English, and they communicate effectively by sticking to hard technical data.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

#17

Post by mcphilip »

short_circut wrote: post #7
chrisacky wrote: post #2

Although this is blogspam, it's a blogspam that I can actually support... This is being covered a lot more widely because FB didn't just pay the guy. I know it wasn't about money for FB, but this is easily done a lot more damage then they would have expected and because of their inadequate handling of a single bug report, I can only feel satisfied as I think this will go down as a good case study of how not to be so…

Dismissive and ignored? Did you read what he submitted to them? It made no sense. He vaguely stated that there was a bug and his education. His bug report was nonsensical. I am not even slightly surprised they ignored it. And he violated the TOS before he even ever tried to post to Zuckerberg's wall.

I don't think it is as cut and dry as that. The reply that 'this is not a bug' showed a lack of concern that the reporter may have been having difficulties correctly submitting information about what would be a very significant defect, if true.

A community member taking the time and interest to try and go through proper channels to submit a vulnerability should, IMO, be given more respect than was shown by FB.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

#18

Post by cliveowen »

jzelinskie wrote: post #6

Why don't people just send things in their native language? If the platform for communication is serious (like a place to report security vulnerabilities), I would imagine they would spend the time/money to get a real translation if one was needed. Even Google Translate probably could've done a better job than this guy's original report.

There's no excuse for not knowing the English language, first as a 21 century citizen and secondly as a web developer.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

#19

Post by donohoe »

short_circut wrote: post #7
chrisacky wrote: post #2

Although this is blogspam, it's a blogspam that I can actually support... This is being covered a lot more widely because FB didn't just pay the guy. I know it wasn't about money for FB, but this is easily done a lot more damage then they would have expected and because of their inadequate handling of a single bug report, I can only feel satisfied as I think this will go down as a good case study of how not to be so…

Dismissive and ignored? Did you read what he submitted to them? It made no sense. He vaguely stated that there was a bug and his education. His bug report was nonsensical. I am not even slightly surprised they ignored it. And he violated the TOS before he even ever tried to post to Zuckerberg's wall.

It was tough enough to read his post to MZ wall.

Clearly there was a language gap and the original bug report suffered as a result. I don't its such a big deal overall.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked by an unemployed web developer

#20

Post by beat »

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #5

I don't really understand what significance there is in stating that he is "unemployed." Does that somehow make his actions better/worse or the "hack" more/less tolerable?

You're starting to see the fnords. Stop that! Look over there, a celebrity is having marital problems! A pretty young blonde woman is missing!

Journalism is always fair and balanced. They would never, ever use potentially biasing words to suggest that you favor the big corporation over the individual.

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