Hacker Cancels Plan to Live Stream Deletion of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Account.
It was just yesterday when Facebook announced that it was hacked after attackers exploited a vulnerability in its View As feature and gained access to over 50 million accounts. Now, a well-known hacker from Taiwan, Chang Chi-yuan made headlines for a rather intriguing statement as he threatened to live stream the deletion of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s official Facebook account.
However, as per the latest twist in the tale, the white hat hacker has canceled this plan and announced it on Facebook as well. “I am canceling my live feed, I have reported the bug to Facebook and I will show proof when I get a bounty from Facebook,” said Chang.
On Sunday, according to Bloomberg, the Taiwanese hacker had claimed to broadcast himself as he deletes the personal Facebook profile of Mr. Zuckerberg. Chi-yuan posted in his Facebook account that he will live stream the account’s deletion. It is worth noting that Chi-yuan and his Facebook page are listed on Japanese messaging giant Line Corp.’s Bug-hunters’ Hall of Fame 2016 as “Special Contributor.”
The hacker has posted screenshots of the social network’s responses to his bug reports on his Facebook timeline as well. In Sept, 2018 Chi-yuan also posted a screenshot of the Apple Pay flaw that he identified, which let him buy 500 iPhones for only 1 Taiwanese dollar. He has also claimed to have launched cyber-attacks on Tesla and Apple.
Reportedly, Chi-yuan was sued by a local bus operator as well for hacking his system and purchasing a ticket worth a single Taiwanese dollar (USD 3 cents). He has earlier mentioned that he wants to use his hacking skills to earn money, so naturally, he was attracted to Facebook’s ongoing bug bounty program. Facebook is offering recognition and rewards to security researchers who are successful in identifying vulnerabilities in the social network’s services.
In one of his recent posts, Chi-yuan wrote: “I don’t want to be a proper hacker, and I don’t even want to be a hacker at all. I’m just bored and try to dabble so that I can earn some money.”
After canceling his plan to publicly delete Mr. Zuckerberg’s account, this is what he posted on his Facebook page: “I shouldn’t try to prove myself by toying with Zuck’s account.”
Chi-yuan has stated that he will be sharing the proof with the social network after he receives the bounty.