He definitely took data off of Facebook's server.
Also you misunderstand his access being denied was a firewall change earlier in his story. This was merely to speculate other systems he could have penetrated--completely separate from the S3 buckets he took data from.
From Facebook's perspective it could very well have seemed like he went back for the goods since he submitted three separate reports, the last of which triggered the response. But this is also irrelevant, the question is whether he took data off or not and this is unambiguously yes, by Wes's own admission.
FB: He's an experienced bug bounty hunter and should know where reasonable borders are.
All the experienced security guys itt: He's an experienced bug bounty hunter and should know where reasonable borders are or at least not pivot/escalate without asking. Also never dump and hold data.
Everyone else: What he did isn't technically against the rules FB wrote, so they are screwing him, despite it also being written that they have sole discretion.
Ah, so those who disagree are inexperienced? No true scottsman indeed!
(For the record, I do, though I'm not sure I'd flatter myself by saying I'm "experienced" exactly.)
* You are stating that all (not some) experienced security folks are agreeing unanimously. The implication is that those show disagree are not "experienced security guys" (as you called them: "everyone else") - they are the ones who aren't true scotsman
* you assume those who don't explicitly indicate that they work in infosec industry do not work in the infosec industry
* also, you do you need to be "experienced" in the infosec industry to be correct / wrong.
I don't think the person you were replying to was suggesting that any infosec people who fully support the researcher aren't real infosec workers. I just don't think he saw any who even claimed to be.
Defense in depth means every defense needs to be validated not just the outer layers.
PS: Further, if FB says they know about a bug then anything he downloaded could easily be in the wild and should be investigated.
What's really getting to me is the overwhelming number of responses containing idea that everything that isn't explicitly banned is permitted, despite the recipient saying "No" (even indirectly/without justification) at some point. How to deal with the grey area of consent is something that every adult should know, and it's worrying to me that so many here seem to feel entitled to whatever they can take as long as it wasn't explicitly forbidden.
Obviously FB should update their policy, but at the same time it's important that we as the community use this as an opportunity to learn and discuss where the implicit boundaries are, where one needs clear-cut agreement to proceed.
Consent is sexy.
The question seems to be if he did it in good faith and within the rules of the bug bounty program.
The next $1M bug that gets discovered will probably go out onto the black market because of Mr. Alex's actions here.
Facebook has now demonstrated that they will not only not pay you, but they will attacking you publicly, slander you, and threaten you. Now what does that mean for the next hacker coming along? Someone who is clean and wants to stay clean will avoid Facebook. Someone who isn't will realize that Facebook is now an easier target because of the clean guys staying away.
At best.
One obvious hole I can see in Facebook's story is that they insinuate that Wes broke back into the server after they disputed the bounty. If this were true, they did nothing in response to the problems Wes found for over a month.
If you look at Wes's timeline, he says access to the server was no longer possible a few days after he filed the second report.
It comes down to who you believe. Personally, I find Wes to be more credible. It sounds like it was most likely a misunderstanding by FaceBook. Now they are doing damage control.