A lot of people are really angry with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg right now -- and maybe a lot of it is even justified.
The problem for Zuckerberg though is that some of those people have the means to do something about it. One of those people is white-hat hacker Chang Chi-yuan.
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Chi-yuan posted on the social media platform on Thursday, promising his followers that would hack into Zuckerberg¡¯s Facebook account and delete. He¡¯s even set to host a livestream of the event, starting at 3:30 pm (IST) on Sunday.¡±Broadcasting the deletion of Facebook founder Zuck's account,¡± he told his over 26,000 followers.
According to Bloomberg, Chi-yuan is a self-proclaimed bug bounty hunter, and apparently also a minor celebrity in Taiwan. He¡¯s appeared on local talk shows there and has reportedly even been sued by a local bus operator after breaching their systems to snag a ticket for a paltry amount.
Earlier in September Chi-yuan shared a screenshot, supposedly of an Apple Pay loopholed he¡¯d discovered that let him pay NT$1 for 500 iPhones, which is a little over Rs 2.5. In the past, he¡¯s also claimed to have breached Apple and Tesla systems, and is listed in the 2016 bug bounty hall of fame for a major Japanese messaging client.
¡°I don¡¯t want to be a proper hacker, and I don¡¯t even want to be a hacker at all,¡± Chang posted on Facebook recently. ¡°I¡¯m just bored and try to dabble so that I can earn some money.¡± Many tech companies offer monetary rewards to cybersecurity researchers that bring system vulnerabilities to their attention. The bigger the loophole the more the payout, which is a great way to outsource your digital security.
Let¡¯s be honest though, having its CEO¡¯s profile hacked is the last thing Facebook needs right now, which might be Chi-yuan¡¯s intent. Whether just a way to grab attention or a protest against Facebook¡¯s data gathering methods, his possible success could really undermine Facebook at large.
After all, who wants to give their data to a platform after it¡¯s publicly proven they can¡¯t even keep their most prized users safe?