By James Rogers
A self-described hacker was randomly paid nearly $250,000 by Google. He was amazed at the payment.
A self-described hacker was randomly paid nearly $250,000 by Google. He was amazed at the payment.
Sam Curry tweeted on Tuesday about the mysterious payment from Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL)’s Google. “It’s been a little over 3 weeks since Google randomly sent me $249,999 and I still haven’t heard anything on the support ticket. Is there any way we can contact @Google?” he wrote.
“It’s okay if you don’t want it back…” he joked.
Curry describes himself as a hacker and a bug bounty hunter in his Twitter bio. He works as a staff security engineer at Yuga Labs, the crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) specialist that created the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project.
Opinion: Don’t dismiss Bored Apes – NFTs can be a practical platform for sales and smart contracts
NPR reports that Google made the payment a mistake, noting that Curry sometimes does bug-free work for the tech giant and other companies.
“Google did indeed contact me and I’m going into the bank today to pay it back,” Curry told MarketWatch on Friday.
MarketWatch has reached out to Google with a request for comment on this story.
Bug bounty is paid out by companies and other organizations when someone discovers a vulnerability in their systems and returns the vulnerability, or “bug,” to them. Last year, for example, the Department of Homeland Security launched its “Hack DHS” program, inviting cybersecurity researchers and ethical hackers to identify potential vulnerabilities in certain DHS external systems.
In April 2022, the Department reported that more than 450 vetted researchers had identified 122 vulnerabilities, of which 27 were determined to be critical. DHS awarded a total of $125,600 in rewards, it said.
Alphabet shares fell 0.9% before the market opened on Friday. The stock is down 29.0% year to date through Thursday, compared with the S&P 500 index, which is down 18.2%.
– James Rogers
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
09-16-22 0909ET
Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
