Jani received a hefty prize from Instagram mid-March.

It is not uncommon for teenagers to find flaws in software, but for a 10-year-old it is remarkable. A Finnish kid Jani, who wishes to go just by his first name, did just that. He isn’t old enough to have an account in Instagram, but still managed to find a devastating flaw from the popular social media picture sharing service.

– I just tested if the comment field in Instagram could withstand malicious code. It didn’t. I realized I could delete other people’s writings, self-educated IT security expert Jani told Iltalehti.

– I could have deleted comments from anyone, Justin Bieber for example, Jani illustrates.

The Elementary school student from Helsinki sent an email to Instagram and notified them of his findings.

A couple of days later he received a reply. Instagram informed him about having fixed the vulnerability. As a thanks Jani was paid 10 000 dollars (9 000 euros), which he received mid-March.

Despite his young age Jani took interest in coding computer games several years ago.

– Then I started to get interested in information security and started watching videos about it on YouTube, Jani says.

The wunderkind has honed his skills with his twin brother. Even his dad wasn’t aware how talented his son was.

– It came as a surprise to me that Jani is so advanced in this. This stuff is Double Dutch to me, proud father Marko says to Iltalehti.

The brothers have searched for vulnerabilities before and even found a few. They have however been somewhat insignificant and have not resulted in any rewards.

Jani has even held a presentation about information security to his schoolmates, but even they were stunned after hearing about Jani’s feat.

– They were really astonished and amazed. They had no idea I can do things like this, Jani says and chuckles.

When he grows up, he wishes to have a career in cybersecurity.

– That is my dream profession. Information security is really important.

That dream may come true sooner than expected. After Iltalehti broke the news about Jani, he has already received several enquiries and endorsements from computer security companies such as the Finnish company F-Secure and has attracted the attention of major international media outlets.

But for now, life isn’t just code and computers. Jani intends to buy a new bicycle and a football with his prize money.