Whistleblower on Twitter expressed security worries
Whistleblower on Twitter expressed security worries
A former Twitter security head turned whistleblower testified in court that the firm deceived customers and US authorities about security flaws.
Peiter Zatko also asserted that Twitter miscalculated the number of phony and spam accounts that were present on its network.
The allegations might have an impact on Twitter’s legal spat with billionaire Elon Musk, who is attempting to back out of his $44 billion (£37 billion) purchase agreement with the business.
Twitter claims that Mr. Zatko’s accusations are untrue and contradictory.
According to the report, he was fired in January due to poor performance and ineffective leadership.
In his scathing findings, Mr. Zatko charged Twitter with breaching strict security procedures and “lying about bots to Elon Musk,” The Washington Post.
In July, he submitted his grievance to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Zatko also criticized Twitter’s handling of private information and said it had misreported some of these issues to US regulators.
Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Kanye West have all been targeted in high-profile Twitter breaches.
One of the issues Mr. Zatko has with Twitter, he claims, is that there is “about one security incident per week important enough that Twitter was forced to report it to regulators.”
Why did Musk hesitate before tweeting?
He said that the internet company’s handling of false and spam accounts was marked by “deliberate ignorance,” and he charged Twitter officials with lacking motivation to correctly measure the number of such accounts really active on their site.
The Washington Post notes that he “provides little substantial evidence” to support his claims.
However, Elon Musk’s legal team has already reacted to the remarks. The Tesla CEO’s legal team is presently attempting to back out of the agreement by claiming that Twitter lacks the ability to confirm how many of its 229 million daily active users are indeed human.
Following the disclosures made by Mr. Zatko, Mr. Musk tweeted images of the article from The Washington Post along with the words “give a small whistle.”
Peiter Zatko, a former hacker, is well-known in the world of computer security.
He went by the moniker Mudge and was a member of the L0pht (pronounced “loft”) think tank for computer security. In 1998, he participated in congressional hearings on cyber-security.
Additionally, he has held executive roles at Google and DARPA, the research and development arm of the US government.
A representative for Twitter said: “What we’ve seen so far is a misleading narrative that is devoid of crucial context, rife with contradictions and falsehoods, and regarding Twitter and our privacy and data security standards.
“Mr. Zatko’s accusations and shrewd timing seem to be intended to garner attention and hurt Twitter, its users, and its stockholders. Security and privacy have always been and will remain top considerations at Twitter.
Pieter Zatko‘s supporter, Whistleblower Aid’s John Tye, spoke to him as a “hero” and urged authorities to look into the claims right now.
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