Man Rewarded for Google Takeover

A man briefly took over Google.com when the domain name was mistakenly sold online.

17:26 14 October 2015

A man who briefly bought and owned the Google.com web domain has been rewarded a “bug bounty” by Google’s security team for revealing the weakness in the domain buying system.

 

US student Sanmay Ved said that he had been looking for Google-related web domains as he used to work for the search giant. In the early hours of 29 September, he found a sale sign next to the Google.com name and quickly bought it for $12. After receiving a confirmation that he is indeed the owner of the web domain, he started getting messages intended for Google’s own web administration team.

 

Google caught on fast and canceled the transaction. It sent email to Mr Ved saying that he could not take over Google.com because someone else had already registered it. He was then refunded $12.

 

Now, it has emerged that Mr Ved has been given a “bug bounty” by Google’s security team for revealing the weakness in the domain buying system. Mr Ved donated the cash to an Indian educational foundation and in response, Google doubled the reward.