It's not often the US government are going to ask you to try and hack into their website so when the opportunity arises, you better grab it with both hands.
High school student David Dworken has done exactly that and landed himself offers from recruiters about possible internships after finding several bugs on the Pentagon website.
The 18-year-old, from Washington D.C, was one of two people specifically praised by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter for reporting six vulnerabilities.
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Dworken was hacking into government websites in between classes at Maret High School as part of a reward scheme aimed at computer geniuses looking to find holes in the Pentagon website.
Mr Carter said: "We know that state-sponsored actors and black-hat hackers want to challenge and exploit our networks.
"What we didn't fully appreciate before this pilot was how many white hat hackers there are who want to make a difference."
The Pentagon, 1969. Credit: PA
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Basically, the Pentagon asked 1400 people to hack into their system, offering rewards from $100 to $15,000 to those who managed to report bugs they hadn't noticed.
David, who plans to go to university to study computer science, didn't actually find any new bugs but was praised for his ingenuity nonetheless.
In total, 138 vulnerabilities were found during the project. We imagine they're currently being worked on as we speak.
Words by George Pavlou
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