12-year-old identifies Firefox security flaw, gets $3,000 reward

A 12-year-old professional bug hunter recently received a whopping $3,000 from Mozilla for identifying a critical Firefox security flaw.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, Alex Miller - who is in seventh grade - stepped up his efforts to find the bug after the company increased its bounty payments from $500 to 3K. 

"A couple of months ago we [raised] the amount of payment to a much more substantial $3,000, basically to reflect the change in the economy, and the marketplace, since the time the program was initiated," Mozilla spokesperson Brandon Sterne told the Mercury News.

"The space of people that are contributing in this area is pretty small. This is a very niche technical area. [Still], Mozilla is a community mostly of volunteers.

"We really encourage people to get involved in the community. And you don't have to be a brilliant 12-year-old to do that."



Meanwhile, Elissa Miller told the paper that her son Alex was virtually "self-taught."

"Reading [our] very technical books is not an assignment [for Alex]," she explained.

“[Rather], it's something he just does; and he understands them. He [obviously] has a gift for the technical. Clearly, it's his passion."