Ruby Nealon
| Ruby Nealon | |
|---|---|
| Born | Manchester, England |
| 🎓 Alma mater | University of Salford |
| 💼 Occupation | Computer security researcher |
Ruby Nealon is an English computer security researcher. At the age of 14, he left secondary school to pursue a full-time bachelor's degree at the University of Salford.[1][2] Nealon is best known for publishing a 45-second-long video game called "Watch Paint Dry" onto Steam's database without approval or verification, in March 2016.[1][3][4]
Early life and education[edit]
Born in Manchester, United Kingdom, Nealon enrolled in modules at the Open University whilst studying in primary school, enabling him to leave high school early and start his bachelor's degree in Computer Science at the University of Salford when he was 14.[5][1][2] Nealon said he has had an interest in computer security from a young age, with his first vulnerability acknowledgement dating back to when he was 11.[4]
Watch Paint Dry[edit]
In March 2016, Nealon exploited a chain of technical and social engineering vulnerabilities in the Steam digital distribution platform, allowing him to release content to the service's store immediately and bypassing review procedures put in place by Valve, the developers of the service. Nealon released "Watch Paint Dry", a short RPG Maker game featuring a picture of his bedroom wall and requiring no skill or decisions from the player.[6][1][3] Nealon claimed to have emailed Valve in January to responsibly disclose the issues but received no response.[4] The game was quickly removed from the storefront, with Nealon releasing technical details on the vulnerabilities used and expressing discontent at how Valve had handled the issue.[6][7] Nealon was able to retain product keys for the game on Steam, which he publicly sold off the platform for as high as $40, despite typical gameplay lasting under a minute in length.[7][8]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Nichols, Shaun (2016-03-30). "Teen tricks leaky Valve into publishing hot new Steam game: Watching Paint Dry". The Register. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 McGoogan, Cara (8 April 2017). "Inside the murky world of hackers for hire". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cutlack, Gary (2016-03-30). "Steam Hacker Publishes Fake Game to Highlight Valve's Security Holes". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Grayson, Nathan (2016-03-29). "16-Year-Old Hacker Sneaks Game Onto Steam Without Valve's Approval". Kotaku. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
- ↑ "IT whizz kid needs sponsors to finish degree". Messenger Newspapers. 2011-07-04. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Nealon, Ruby (2016-03-29). "Watch Paint Dry: How I got a game on the Steam Store without anyone from Valve ever looking at it". The Startup. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Orland, Kyle (2016-04-01). "Steam hacker says more vulnerabilities will be found, but not by him". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
- ↑ "Watch paint dry Community Hub". Steam. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
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