The world is not short of extraordinary talent if you look for it in the right place. And KS Ananthkrishnan, is one such bundle of talent, who gained the ‘extraordinary’ status at a mere age of 19.
Ananthkrishnan, who is a second-year student of Mount Zion College of Engineering and Technology, has made it to the prestigious list of 94 people in the Facebook Hall of Fame. Apart from that, he was also given prize money worth $500 (₹34,645).
According to The Financial Express, the reason behind the honor is that the young student from Kerala reported about a bug on WhatsApp which could potentially cause memory corruption. While he notified the problem to Facebook, in the month of March, he was awarded by the company in May. Speaking about the same, he said,
“The bug enabled trackers to delete or wipe the complete data of the victim. I reported about this bug to Facebook in March and was awarded for the same in May.”
But wait. Ananthkrishnan is a cybersecurity enthusiast and it is not the first time he got recognized for his technological expertise. A year and a half ago, he alerted Google of a bug on the platform and got an honorable mention for the same.
“A year and a half back, I was also enlisted in Google’s honourable mentions. I had reported a bug on the platform and while it did not meet the criteria for a reward, I did get an honourable mention.”
The super-talented soul also revealed that he was drawn towards the field when he in class 12, after realizing the vast opportunities in the sector. Besides his studies, Ananthkrishnan, volunteers for the Kerala Police Cyberdome, technological research and development centre of the Kerala police. To add to it, he works as a freelance consultant with private firms.
According to him, anyone can report a bug on Facebook or any affiliated platform can report the same through the ‘Report Vulnerability Form’. Anantkrishnan also expressed his desire to work in the information security domain in the future.
The country is proud to have you as its son, young boy! Congratulations!