He tried to warn them . A Palestinian researcher posted a message on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg 's page last week after he says the site 's security team did n't take his warnings about a security flaw seriously . `` First , sorry for breaking your privacy and post ( ing ) to your wall , '' wrote Khalil Shreateh . `` I ( have ) no other choice to make after all the reports I sent to ( the ) Facebook team . '' Shreateh , who describes himself as an unemployed security researcher with a degree in information systems , said he found a hole in Facebook 's systems that let him post to any user 's page , including users not on his Friends list . Such an exploit would be a virtual gold mine for spammers , scam artists and others seeking to take advantage of the site 's roughly 1 billion users worldwide . On his blog , Shreateh posted a series of e-mails he said were exchanged between him and Facebook security . After the first one , a Facebook employee responded that the link he attached was bad . Shreateh had included a post -- an Enrique Iglesias video -- he says he posted on the page of a woman who went to college with Zuckerberg . He speculated that Facebook 's security team could n't see it because they were n't on her Friends list . Somebody buy Mark Zuckerberg some clothes . Facebook responded to his second message to say the issue he was reporting was not a bug . His response : `` ok that mean ( s ) I have no choice other than report this to mark himself on facebook . '' Needless to say , that got their attention . Facebook says the flaw was fixed on Thursday . But over the weekend the episode began making headlines on tech blogs . On the Hacker News website , Facebook security team member Matt Jones wrote that the language barrier with Shreateh , who is not a native English speaker , and the volume of reports the site receives were partly to blame for the site 's slow response . `` Unfortunately , all he submitted was a link to the post he 'd already made ( on a real account whose consent he did not have ) ... saying that 'the bug allow facebook users to share links to other facebook users , ' `` Jones wrote . `` For background , as a few other commenters have pointed out , we get hundreds of reports every day . Many of our best reports come from people whose English is n't great -- though this can be challenging , it 's something we work with just fine and we have paid out over $ 1 million to hundreds of reporters . '' Because he violated Facebook 's terms of service by hacking the pages of other users , Shreateh is not eligible to receive a reward under the site 's White Hat program designed to find and fix bugs . Shreateh , who says he has been looking for work for two years , lives in the Palestinian city of Yatta , in a region where the unemployment rate is officially 22 % and is higher among men in their 20s , like Shreateh . `` I could sell ( information about the flaw ) on the black ( hat ) hackers ' websites and I could make more money than Facebook could pay me , '' he said in an interview with CNN . `` But for me -- I am a good guy . I do n't deal with the black ( hat ) stuff . '' In hacker circles , `` white hat '' is a term for people who report exploits they find so they can be fixed , while `` black hat '' often refers to people who hack to take advantage of those exploits . He said he 's proud that , as a Palestinian using a five-year-old laptop with broken keys and a broken battery , he had the skills to find a problem with one of the world 's biggest websites . But he acknowledged hoping his tip would lead to a reward from Facebook . `` I never asked them , ' I want $ 4,000 or $ 5,000 ' , '' he said . `` I did n't deal with them like that ... . ( But ) I really needed that money . '' Security researcher Marc Maiffret launched an online campaign Monday to pay Shreateh the money Facebook denied him and had raised more than $ 8,800 by early Tuesday . `` Let us all send a message to security researchers across the world and say that we appreciate the efforts they make for the good of everyone , '' Maiffret said on the GoFundMe page . Facebook 's Jones acknowledged that the security team should have asked Shreateh for more information . `` I have to admit that I have some sympathy with Facebook on this issue , '' security analyst Graham Cluley wrote on his blog . `` Although he was frustrated by the response from Facebook 's security team , Shreateh did the wrong thing by using the flaw to post a message on Mark Zuckerberg 's wall . '' He would have been better served returning to Facebook 's security team with more evidence and further explaining it or , if that did n't work , taking the information to a technology journalist to report , Cluley said .
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg 's personal computer was hacked to make a point . Palestinian researcher says security team did n't take his claims seriously . FBI says volume of reports , language barrier hindered its response . Khalil Shreateh did n't get a reward for fixing the flaw .