A Russian researcher has been awarded a record $40,000 by U.S. social media site Facebook for spotting a vital security flaw.
Online security expert Andrei Leonov found that the site was vulnerable to remote attacks launched using a bug in the image-processing software Image Magick.
The original Image Magick flaw, dubbed “Image Tragick,” was spotted and patched in May 2016, but hackers have been able to use it to attack larger sites which use the software plug-ins.
Leonov received the payout through Facebook's Bug Bounty program, which rewards computer experts who spot flaws in the site's coding. The program has paid $5 million in its 5-year existence to more than 900 researchers, the company announced in Oct. 2016.
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