Meet Ezequiel Pereira, the Teenager Who Got $36, 000 from Bug Hunting

Ezequiel Pereira is an 18 year old Uruguayan who just got rewarded $36,000 by Google through its ‘Vulnerability Reward Program’ for exposing a security flaw which would have allowed him make changes to internal company systems.

This cash award makes it the fifth of such awards the teenager would be receiving from Google for bug detection. Just a month before he turned 17 in 2006, Ezequiel made his first accepted bug discovery, which earned him $500. After that, he turned in another $5,000, then, $7,500 another $10,000 and now, $36,000 – his biggest so far.

The teen was super excited over his win; “It feels really good — I’m glad that I found something that was so important,” he said.

Ezequiel got his first computer when he was 10, took an initial programming class when he was 11 and then spent years teaching himself different coding languages and techniques. In 2016, he won a coding contest in his home country of Uruguay and was flown by Google to its California head office to be honoured.

The teenager, who turns 19 in August, is currently studying Computer Engineering at the University of the Republic (A public University) in his hometown of Montevideo, Uruguay. He ended up in the school after the over twenty schools he applied to for scholarship in the US turned down his offer.

Nonetheless, he is saving up a chunk of his winnings towards getting a Masters degree in Computer Security but also spares a part of it for helping his mother pay the bills and occasionally hanging out with friends.

None of his close friends have ever submitted a bug of their own, though he tries to encourage them to give it a shot.

“They’re interested but they don’t think they know enough,” he said. “But I always tell them just to try! Anyone can learn these things.”

When he’s finished with his homework and doesn’t feel like hanging out with friends or watching videos, he’ll whip out his computer and start hunting. Ezequiel is now ranked at number 12 in Google’s Hall of Fame for its bug hunters program.

Tech Companies say that if they encourage security researchers to test their systems for money, they have a better chance of staving off bad actors. Google doled out $2.9 million to 274 different researchers last year, with a top award of $112,500.

“Most achievers I know are people who have made a strong and deep dedication to pursuing a particular goal. That dedication took a tremendous amount of effort” – DONALD JOHANSON