Chang Chi-Yuan has backtracked on his promise of hacking into Mark Zuckerberg’s facebook.
Photo: Chang Chi Yuan
Chang Chi-Yuan, the self-proclaimed guru of finding software bugs in return for cash, had earlier announced that he would live-stream a hacking of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook account and delete it live in front of the world at 6 p.m. local time.
The hacker had promised to livestream his hack into Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook account on Sunday, September 30th, 2018. “Broadcasting the deletion of Facebook founder Zuck’s account scheduled to go live,” he told his followers.
The hacker is a celebrity of sorts in Taiwan and has a history of breaching systems. He has previously claimed to exploit an Apple Pay loophole that allowed him to pay only NT$1 for 500 iPhones amongst other such similar claims. He was also listed on Japanese messaging Company Line’s Hall of fame for bug-hunter’s 2016.
Chang Chi-yang confirmed later on Friday that he would not be going ahead with the hack. He explained that he did not want to be a hacker but was just a bored youngster who likes to earn money by ferreting out a bug here and there and wanted to do the same in the case of Facebook. (Facebook has a bug-bounty program that pays cyber-security experts who point out flaws in its system.)
He confirmed that the live feed had been canceled and that he reported the bug to Facebook directly and would show proof when he gets paid for it by Facebook.
In a post on his Facebook page, Chang said, “I shouldn’t try to prove myself by toying with Zuck’s account.”