Byron Ng, the non-hacker who exploited a Facebook privacy loophole and sent pictures of Paris Hilton and Mark Zuckerberg to the AP earlier this year, has struck again. This time he went after app-maker Slide and got more pictures of Paris Hilton and Mark Zuckerberg from the app Top Friends, which has since been suspended from the network. But it’s not the first time Byron has been able to get his name in the press for publicizing the work of actual hackers:
- July 2007: Byron tells the Vancouver Sun that he has more than half of the last Harry Potter book – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- four days before it comes out.
- March 2008: Byron finds out about a Facebook loophole and uses it to send pictures of Paris Hilton and Mark Zuckerberg to the AP
- June 2008: Byron gets Paris’ and Lindsay Lohan’s MySpace photos by going through Yahoo!, which allows users to add their MySpace profiles to their cell phones.
- June 2008: He plays with URLs to get access to Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and (surprise!) Paris Hilton’s pictures on Slide’s Top Friends on Facebook.
Notice any overlap in his exploits (besides Paris Hilton)? He’s not a hacker. He doesn’t ever write or manipulate code. He’s just good at Googling, and has a long list of media contacts. We hate to suggest this but Byron may want to get into the blogging business.
Picture of Byron Ng from the Vancouver Sun
See Also:
Byron Ng: Not A Hacker, Just Good With Media
Byron Ng's Enemies: Mark Zuckerberg, Paris Hilton, JK Rowling
