Google rewards Uruguayan teenager for finding security flaw

Google has rewarded a Uruguayan teenager a "bug bounty" of more than $36,000 for disclosing a severe security flaw. Ezequiel Pereira's sporadic poking around has finally paid off in a big way: Google just awarded him $36,337 for finding a vulnerability that would have allowed him to make changes to internal company systems, CNBC reported.

"I found something almost immediately that was worth $500 and it felt so amazing. So I decided to keep trying," Pereira was quoted as saying. "It feels really good; I'm glad that I found something that was so important."

Although Pereira found the bug earlier this year, he only just got the nod to write about how he discovered it, after Google confirmed that it had fixed the issue, the report said. It marks Pereira's fifth accepted bug, but it's by far his most lucrative. Pereira was a month shy of 17 when he first got paid for exposing a Google security flaw through its bug bounty programme.

Pereira got his first computer when he was 10, took an initial programming class when he was 11 and then spent years teaching himself different coding languages and techniques. In 2016, Google flew him to its California headquarters after he won a coding contest.

USD 36k
Reward the teenager got from Google

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever