13-year-old Hacker from China lectures adults on internet security

Grown adults were listening to and took advice
from a 13-year-old boy, who spoke about Internet
security.
The teenager, Wang Zhengyang, is an “Internet
security prodigy,” and is believed to be the
youngest Internet hacker.
Zhengyang was invited to speak in front of a large
audience at the Internet Security Conference in
Beijing, China.
The teen said that he prefers to be seen as an
“ethical computer hacker” after being questioned
about the allegations that he hacked an online
store and changed the price of an item from 2,500
yuan ($1 = 6.13 yuan) to 1 yuan.
Zhengyang, who is a junior high school student in
Beijing, said that he only wanted to “help fix the
website, by showing the owners the flaws.”
He was also accused of manipulating the online
system at his school. Zhengyang did not deny the
allegations. However, he explained that he had no
benefit from the hacked account.
He explained that he did not hack the website for
his junior high class, but for high school students
in the same school.
“We must first attack the websites to find it’s
weaknesses,” he explained.
In another incident, Zhengyang hacked a
company’s website and went on a shopping spree
without being charged for the items.
He said that he was able to do so after finding a
security breach related to password authentication.
He notified the online store of the security breach
and purchased the items.
In April, the teen contacted Qihoo 360 Technology,
a software company based in Beijing, about
potential system flaws that could affect more than
100 educational institutions in the country.
“I think that hacking a website for profit is
immoral,” Zhengyang said. He enjoys finding
security risks on websites and find ways to fix it.
“I will not use my talents for anything illegal,”
Zhengyang told his listeners. (WWWN)