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Man who Hacked Zuckerberg’s Facebook Account to Get Cash Reward … but not from Facebook

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

A man who hacked into Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page to expose a software bug is getting donations from hackers around the world after the company declined to pay him under a program that normally rewards people who report flaws.

Khalil Shreateh discovered and reported the flaw but was initially dismissed by the company’s security team. He then posted a message on the billionaire’s wall to prove the bug’s existence.

Now, Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust, is trying to mobilize fellow hackers to raise a $10,000 reward for Shreateh after Facebook refused to compensate him.

Maiffret, a high school dropout and self-taught hacker, said Tuesday he has raised about $9,000 so far, including the $2,000 he initially contributed.

He and other hackers say Facebook unfairly denied Shreateh, a Palestinian, a payment under its “Bug Bounty” program. It doles out at least $500 to individuals who bring software bugs to the company’s attention.

Read more from this story HERE.

Did the Obama “Genuises” Steal the Data?

photo credit: RichardThere was an interesting article out of Time Magazine (https://swampland.time.com/2012/11/07/inside-the-secret-world-of-quants-and-data-crunchers-who-helped-obama-win/) in which they interviewed the tech geniuses behind the Obama victory. Like so much of the exposure of anything pertaining to the President, this piece only raises more questions than the answers it purports to deliver.

For one, if you were in fact the man who successfully elected and then re-elected the leader of the Free World, why would you preferred to remain anonymous?

The narrative of both elections is that Obama twice used the smartest technological campaign teams on his ride from community organizer to leader of the free world. We all know that there were a myriad of campaign irregularities from Black Panthers turning people away to foreign donations using untraceable single use credit cards, and George Soros paying un unprecedented FEC fine for illegally funneling cash to the Obama campaign. Yet we are told, to just stand in awe that the smartest self-professed lazy student with grades he will not share, is so smart and so tech savvy that he just out thunk us.

In his book Megatrends, John Naisbitt discusses how people can accomplish extraordinary outcomes and success by aligning with these trends. Certainly, among the biggest megatrends of this generation is the rise of social media and search engines. While a few privacy advocates have beaten the drum of warning that we were giving away all our most personal data to Facebook and Google, we were so enthralled with the technology and the capabilities that we unwittingly became part of this story line as we were lured to the kill by the notion we could have all that technology for “free.”

Of course we all know that nothing comes for free. We were betting on free stuff, and now we know what we bartered away in the deal—our liberty.

Read more from this story HERE.