Young Turkish computer geek finds four security gaps on Facebook

ELAZIĞ - Anatolia News Agency

22-year-old İlyas Orak who lives in the small Kovancılar district of Elazığı province in eastern Turkey. AA photo

A young Turkish computer programmer has been awarded $9,450 by Facebook after finding four security gaps on the social media website. İlyas Orak, 22, who lives in the small Kovancılar district of Elazığı province in eastern Turkey, said he first learned how to hack into profiles and change the passwords.

"To hack into a profile and change the password took me only five seconds. The last security gap that I found affected nearly 80 to 90 percent of accounts," he said, adding that Facebook had developed a security notice called 'Whitehot' following his discoveries.

Orak said Facebook's feedback took between two weeks and a month and the social media company gave awards each time a gap was found, the amount depending on the importance of the problem. "Once they paid me $2,950, $5,000 on another occasion and 1,500 was the last award I got," he said.

Orak also said that when he started becoming interested in programming languages of computer systems, he had an inclination toward hacking. "But after a while, I decided that it was more interesting to report the errors," he said.