Kids when they are 14 generally discover faults in their friends. Muhammed Shahzad had other ideas as he identified and reported several weaknesses in the Google application. Subsequently, 14-year old Pakistani was inducted in the Google’s Hall of Fame list.
Ever since Muhammed Shahzad was 12, he had the knack of reporting bugs to Google. However, he only received appreciation and acknowledgment emails from Google for first 2 years. While helping Google to make its server more secure, he stated that:
“When I was 12, I found Android 4.4 Lock Bypass and android had no VRP at that time so what I got was only an appreciation email”
Muhammed Shahzad hails from the heart of Pakistan, Lahore and he is a security researcher and an accomplished ethical hacker. The reason he was entered in the Google’s Hall of Fame list was because of his terrific ability to report number vulnerabilities and helping them fixed.
However, 14-year old kid shrugged off all the concerns when he was asked if he was doing all this to gain monetary and materialistic rewards. He answered:
“Being able to represent Pakistan on a global stage and to be listed with researchers double my age is enough of a reward in itself”
Muhammed Shahzad is also listed in the Apple’s Hall of Fame list after he reported the company about various susceptibilities in their server.
Shahzad was exposed to the tempting field of hacking after his father’s email account was hacked. This is precisely what enticed him to take up this field. While answering to a question about his unreal proficiency in software security and hacking, he stated that:
“At a very young age I had an internet facility. One day my father’s email account got hacked. That was the time when I heard the word ‘hack’ for the very first time. I promised my dad to bring that account back, I couldn’t do that but this was an excuse for me to get introduced to a whole new world”
Muhammed Shahzad discovers the shortcomings in the security programs and then he reports them to the companies to ensure greater security. 14-year old kid is also efficient with Web Applications and he has been currently doing some freelancing projects with PHP.
The prodigy is also a guitarist and a food lover besides being a whiz kid. As far as the future is concerned, Muhammed Shahzad dreams of accomplishing an undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Muhammed Shahzad while giving an interview to Express Tribune ended the conversation by giving a free advice to everyone. He stated that:
“Don’t go for money but instead go for learning first, as money could buy a bed, but it won’t buy sleep”
Profound indeed.
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
