Khaberni - A British hacker obtained an entry visa to Australia by hacking one of the special electronic sites of the Australian government.
Jacob Riggs, (36 years old), hacked the site in less than two hours to prove that he had the required expertise to obtain a rare visa granted only to highly skilled professionals.
This "ethical hacker" later obtained residency rights after alerting the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about a vulnerability in its website, according to a report by the British newspaper The Telegraph, accessed by "Al Arabiya Business".
Riggs is now preparing to move to Sydney in the next twelve months to work in the field of combating cybercrime.
During the hacking process in July, Riggs tested "multiple entry points" before discovering a vulnerability that the department was not aware of.
Riggs said: "If visa application 858 requires anything, it is to prove that your efforts to develop yourself have borne fruit. For me, that meant demonstrating the value of my work in a way that the system could recognize: through contributing to the protection of the country assessing my application".
He added: "I can't say how much impact these additional small pieces of evidence had on the outcome of my 858 visa application, if any, but I like to think that they helped show, in a small and perhaps practical way, that I am capable and committed to supporting Australia's interests in cybersecurity. Whatever role I played, it led me here".
Visa 858, previously known as the Global Talent visa, is granted to less than 1% of applicants and requires them to demonstrate exceptional expertise.
