Google continues to offer a huge big bounty to security researchers. The company has reportedly awarded $36,000 for finding a security flaw.
The 17-year old exposed the security flaw that would have let an attacker make changes to internal company systems. Ezequiel Pereira was almost 17 years old when he first got paid for exposing Google’s security flaw. Google has reportedly offered $36,000 to Pereira for exposing the bug.
In a media conversation with CNBC, Pereira said, “I found something almost immediately that was worth $500 and it just felt so amazing. So I decided to just keep trying ever since then. It feels really good — I'm glad that I found something that was so important.”
The Uruguayan teenager found the bug earlier this year. However, he was allowed to write about it this week. The search engine company was busy confirming the bug before giving official permission to Pereira.
Pereira has been working on the computers since he got his first computer at the age of 10. He took initial programming class when he was 11 and then spent years learning various programming languages and techniques. The company flew him down to its California headquarters in 2016 after he won a coding contest.
His consistent efforts of long years finally paid off in a big way. Pereira has reported four more bugs before this but by far, this is the most significant one. The teenager has started attending computer engineering course in February in his hometown of Montevideo.
The second bug that Pereira reported in July 2017 was awarded $10,000 in bug country. The 17-year old used a large amount of money to apply for scholarships at various US universities. He decided to start schooling at home when none of the 20 odd school accepted him.
Pereira plans to get master’s degree in computer security in future. He will continue to bug hunt in his spare time till then. Google has ranked Pereira at number 12 in Google’s Hall of Fame.