A 22-year-old techie from Jammu and Kashmir has entered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Hall of Fame for spotting data breach vulnerabilities in their system.

Muneeb Amin Bhat, a cyber security researcher, is from Zungalpora village in South Kashmir’s Kulgam.

Muneeb reported his findings under NASA’s Vulnerability Disclosure Program (VDP), which facilitates the US agency’s awareness of otherwise unknown vulnerabilities. As Muneeb is bound by the VDP Guidelines, he cannot disclose the specifics of the external vulnerabilities in the NASA System. Although, he says it did involve sensitive data exposure, reported WION.

Earlier, he had also earned the 'Hall of Fame' from tech giant Apple.

''I was included in the 'Hall of Fame' by Apple in 2023. They had given me permission to ethically hack their systems to check the vulnerabilities and report it to them and they validated it later and acknowledged it and later added my name into the 'Hall of Fame'," he was quoted as saying by WION.

"Recently I had done the same for NASA, and I found some vulnerabilities and I reported them. In the same way, it was acknowledged by NASA and they later included me in the Hall of Fame. I am extremely happy, and I am very happy to help the security organisations to help them secure their data,'' said Muneeb Amin Bhat.