Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
A post claiming that a boy from Bihar’s Begusarai, Ritu Raj Choudhary, hacked Google in “just 51 seconds” and ended up landing a job with the tech company, is going viral on social media platforms. The viral post adds that Rituraj, who is a student at IIT Manipur, was hired with a “package worth 3.66 crore” and that he will travel to “America in a private jet”. The post claims that Rituraj received a message from Google saying “we salute your abilities, you work with us… Our officers are coming to get you”.
Several Facebook users shared the viral post claiming that after Ritu Raj hacked Google, officials at the search engine “ lost their senses” and “chaos erupted in the US office”. It adds that Ritu Raj “restored the services by freeing Google”. However, Newschecker has found the viral claim to be misleading.
Fact Check/Verification
Newschecker conducted a keyword search for ‘Bihar Boy Ritu Raj Google’, ‘Ritu Raj Hacked Google’ and found a report by Times Of India, dated February 3, 2022, titled ‘Bihar: Begusarai boy claims to have identified ‘bug’ in Google.’ According to the article, “A local boy claims to have discovered a potential bug in Google, which the search engine thinks could have led hackers to successfully attack its security and needed to be fixed.”
It added, “Rituraj Choudhary, a second year student of IIIT-Manipur, claimed that as a “passionate bug hunter”, he reported the potential vulnerability to the company, which acknowledged the threat and awarded him a place in its list of researchers.”
The report stated that Google’s Bug Hunters mentions “Tiger award category in Choudhary’s profile.” Another report by Dainik Bhaskar also states that Ritu Raj Choudhary spotted a bug and alerted Google.
However, none of the reports mention anything about hacking the search engine or job offers by Google.
We continued our investigation and looked up Ritu Raj Choudhary on the official website of Google’s Bug Hunters community and found his profile. According to the website, he has been a member of the Bug Hunters community since January 2022 and submitted his first report on January 25 and was awarded the ‘Tiger Award’ on the same day.
Newschecker found the link to Choudhary’s LinkedIn profile as well on the Bug Hunters website.
According to Choudhary’s LinkedIn profile, he is a cyber security enthusiast, bug hunter and coder. He is a second year student of computer science at the Indian Institute of Information Technology Senapati, Manipur.
We also found a post by Choudhary dismissing the claims that he had hacked Google and got a job offer from the tech giant. “I haven’t got any package or job offer from Google or Hack anything. It was just a bug which I have reported. that’s it. Currently I’m just a 2nd year Btech student. So… Those news are Fake…,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
Choudhary also shared a screenshot of an email by Google on his LinkedIn profile acknowledging the presence of the bug he had reported.
The viral post as well as several news outlets, including DNA, have identified him as a student at IIT Manipur. However, according to his LinkedIn profile Choudhary is studying at IIIT, Manipur. Moreover, the domain name of his email address is iiit.ac.in.
Conclusion
The viral post claiming that Bihar student Ritu Raj hacked Google in seconds and landed a job with the search engine is misleading. Choudhary just spotted a bug in Google’s system and alerted them.
Also Read: Emotional Post Of ‘IAS Officer Working In Mica Mines’ Is Fabricated
Result: Misleading Content
Sources
LinkedIn Account Of Ritu Raj Choudhary
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
