Security News > 2020 > June > Facebook paid for a 0-day to help FBI unmask child predator
Facebook paid a cybersecurity firm six figures to develop a zero-day in a Tor-reliant operating system in order to unmask a man who spent years sextorting hundreds of young girls, threatening to shoot or blow up their schools if they didn't comply, Motherboard's Vice has learned.
Hernandez was such a persistent threat, and he was so good at hiding his real identity, that Facebook took the "Unprecedented" step of working with a third-party firm to develop an exploit, Vice reports.
Although Facebook reportedly hired an unnamed third-party to come up with a zero day that would lead to the discovery of Hernandez's IP address and eventual arrest, it didn't actually hand that exploit over to the FBI. It's not even clear that the FBI knew that Facebook was behind the development of the zero day.
A Facebook spokesperson told Motherboard that the publication got it right: the platform had indeed worked with security experts to help the FBI hack Hernandez.
Coming to the aid of the FBI. Both the FBI and Facebook were trying to get Hernandez.