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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

#41

Post by yuliyp »

bwang8 wrote: post #32
arnarbi wrote: post #26

> Shreateh reports he will not, however, receive a bounty for his work — per an e-mail from Facebook, he violated the terms of the program when he hacked Zuckerberg’s account. I think this is wrong. He posted on Sarah Godin's wall first before making any report, very clearly breaking the rules FB sets up for its whitehat program. They offer a way to create test accounts for exactly this. Posting on Mark Zuckerberg's…

From my understanding, Sarah Godin is a fake FB account that he made to test his bug out.

Sarah Goodin is not a fake account, she is one of the first Facebook users (back when it was at Harvard only).

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

#42

Post by beat »

quantumpotato_ wrote: post #21
beat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think it was done to give credence to the web-developers lack of "corporatism", to show an "underdog" narrative. Sort of like "homeless man discovers flaw in millionaire's mansion security".. he's so badass he doesn't need a home, or a job, to be good at what he does. I think. It's gotten nearly impossible to tell w/ modern journalism.

"Unemployed" is never a positive word in American English. In America, if you're unemployed, it's because you're a lazy, shiftless bum - and will quickly resort to crime if your own shortcomings won't let you scam a powerful and scrupulously honest corporation.

The word "unemployed" has such negative connotations here that trying to use it in an underdog narrative is dooming your story to failure.

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

#43

Post by cliveowen »

mcphilip wrote: post #27
cliveowen wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I downvoted you and am leaving this comment in hopes that those reading this thread don't get the impression that the entire HN community supports such a despicable outlook. I, for one, am grateful for all of the many important contributions to furthering computer science and its associated industries by non english speaking individuals.

Do you ever stop and think that maybe if people were less lazy and started learning English things would actually improve? Information (including "important contributions to furthering computer science") would spread more rapidly, people would have access to an endless stream of news outlets and have a more detailed view of the world. Also, there won't be any need to waste money on translators (do you know how much money is wasted by governments translating official documents, bills and whatnot?). Do you have any idea of the abysmal quality of translation of the many textbooks that are used everyday by college students around the world?

But yeah, I guess ignoring the lingua franca of the world and furthering the status quo is the easiest path.

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

#44

Post by beat »

joshaidan wrote: post #36

I find it interesting the amount of attention Hacker News is getting from this in mainstream media. It makes me wonder, when people unfamiliar to Hacker News read about it in stories like this, do they get the wrong impression and think Hacker News is about the criminal kind of "hacking"?

The mainstream media spent twenty years trying to turn the word "hacker" into some sort of unholy cross between thief, terrorist, child pornographer, and teenager. They'd better be getting the sense that hacker == criminal by now!

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

#45

Post by cliveowen »

Casseres wrote: post #40
cliveowen wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, I'm Italian.

Ethnicity ≠ Knowing a language (I don't doubt you, but you are asserting something that is not always true. I know Hispanics that don't know Spanish for example, because their parents never raised them bilingual.)

I wasn't raised as a bilingual either, I had to learn English just like most Europeans do, by trial and error.

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

#47

Post by LandoCalrissian »

zobzu wrote: post #28
short_circut wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The fact that hes not english native and that communication seems hard for him does not mean that: - he did not do all this in good faith. it seems like he genuinely did. Sure there are TOS. But given his english, do you really think he understood them? Of course not. Good faith is a higher morale value (even thus Americans are pretty much used to "if it passed as law/text, morale values are irrelevant, cuz lawyers+m…

I think the important part too, is when he technically violated the TOS it was only to get their attention because he was otherwise being ignored. I don't see any reason they should not want to pay him.

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

#48

Post by joyeuse6701 »

cliveowen wrote: post #18
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.

I can think of many. For example, you're unemployed, and live in a hostile environment (i.e. palestine). I however cannot think of an excuse for a support team who's native language is english to dismiss the possibility of a serious bug.

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

#49

Post by iyulaev »

Oculus wrote: post #35
mcphilip wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem here is that if FB took every single bug report that they got 100% seriously, they'd never get to the real bug reports, but would just constantly be sifting through the spam. You have to make educated guesses on whether or not a report is just useless spam. This report, the way it read, shoots off a lot of spam flags. I understand why he got dismissed so easily and frankly it is his fault. Nobody has enou…

Replying "this is not a bug" is equivalent to saying "I have read and understood your report, and this is not a bug, it is a feature." First off, it's not a dismissal, it's an acknowledgement. Second, since it's not a bug but rather a feature, then how does using the feature violate the ToS?

The correct reply might be something like "cannot understand or reproduce, can you explain more clearly?" along with some bug report guidelines.

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