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Re:Instagram's Million Dollar Bug by dsacco on Thursday December 17, 2015 @05:41PM (#10755158)
Assuming that's true (and I personally don't believe Stamos would flagrantly fabricate a detailed story like this publicly), this is a game changer. It's fully reasonable to escalate to an employer if they seem to be affiliated with the security researcher's report.

Also worth noting that this is frequently done in the security industry - folks will often credit not only themselves but also the companies they work with and are associated with in a security report.

Re:Instagram's Million Dollar Bug by blazespin on Thursday December 17, 2015 @05:55PM (#10755252)
No, Alex just assumed. Why didn't he just ask Wes if he was doing this for Synack?
Re:Instagram's Million Dollar Bug by tptacek on Thursday December 17, 2015 @06:11PM (#10755368)
He "assumed" because the researcher signed up for the Facebook bounty program as an employee of Synack and used his Synack email to communicate with Facebook.

He wasn't guessing. He didn't look the guy up on LinkedIn.

Re:Instagram's Million Dollar Bug by thaumasiotes on Friday December 18, 2015 @01:13AM (#10756955)
> He didn't look the guy up on LinkedIn.

I don't really see how else you can interpret the defense "he has written blog posts that are used by Synack for marketing purposes".

And it's pointed out all over the thread, but no part of "the researcher signed up for the Facebook bounty program as an employee of Synack and used his Synack email to communicate with Facebook" is uncontested, nor is it supported by the text of Alex Stamos' response. You've just read in what you want to see.

Re:Instagram's Million Dollar Bug by sangnoir on Friday December 18, 2015 @05:51AM (#10757817)
> At this point, it was reasonable to believe that Wes was operating on behalf of Synack

> He "assumed" because the researcher signed up for the Facebook bounty program as an employee of Synack and used his Synack email to communicate with Facebook. He wasn't guessing. He didn't look the guy up on LinkedIn

This is a load of bolony / ass-covering by Alex - Facebook's bounty program explicitly deals with individuals only, not companies and Alex knows this. From https://www.facebook.com/whitehat/

> We only pay individuals

edit: down-voters, please point out the faults in my logic.

Re:Instagram's Million Dollar Bug by easuter on Friday December 18, 2015 @07:25AM (#10758069)
From Wes' updated post:

> I never contacted Facebook or Alex using my work email account. It was only after Alex contacted my employer via email that I sent a reply from my work account. Alex indirectly contacted me at work, not the other way around.

Re:Instagram's Million Dollar Bug by Artemis2 on Thursday December 17, 2015 @05:59PM (#10755279)
Why not ask directly Wes if he is working on the behalf of his company? Seems shady at least to resort immediately to his employer.