Twitter has misled users and US regulators about “extreme, egregious” gaps in its online protections, the platform’s ex-security chief claimed in a whistleblower statement that could impact the court battle over Elon Musk’s takeover bid.
Peiter Zatko’s complaint, released by US media on Tuesday, also accused Twitter of grossly underestimating the number of fake and spam accounts — a key element in Musk’s argument for trying to secure his $44 billion deal for the cancel ownership of the platform.
CNN and the Washington Post cite Zatko’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing Twitter of “negligence, willful ignorance and threats to national security and democracy.”
Zatko, whom Twitter says it fired earlier this year for poor performance, has warned both US authorities about outdated servers, software vulnerable to computer attacks and executives trying to hide the number of hacking attempts as well as before the company’s board of directors.
The hacker-turned-executive, nicknamed “Mudge,” also claims that Twitter prioritizes growing its user base over fighting spam and bots, the filing says.
In May, Zatko accused the platform’s boss, Parag Agrawal, of “lying” in a tweet.
In the tweet, Agrawal says that Twitter “has a strong incentive to identify and remove as much spam as possible.”
Twitter rejects the allegations.
A company spokesman told AFP on Tuesday that Zatko was fired in January this year for “ineffective leadership and poor performance.”
“What we have seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is fraught with contradictions and inaccuracies and lacks important context,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The “opportunistic timing” of the allegations “appears destined to draw attention and cause harm to Twitter, its customers and shareholders,” the statement continued.
“Security and privacy have long been, and will continue to be, company-wide priorities at Twitter.”
Twitter has sued to stop Musk from walking away from the acquisition, and a court hearing is scheduled for mid-October over whether the billionaire can be forced to complete the deal.
– Subpoena from Musk –
The issue of fake accounts is at the center of the legal dispute between Twitter and Tesla boss Musk.
The billionaire has repeatedly accused the company of minimizing the number of fake accounts and spam on its platform.
Musk relies on the argument to justify abandoning his plan to buy Twitter for $44 billion and avoiding a settlement.
CNN said Zatko had no contact with Musk and started the whistleblower process before there were any indications of the billionaire’s involvement with Twitter.
“We already issued a subpoena for Mr. Zatko and we found his departure and that of other key employees odd given what we found,” Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro told AFP.
Both the Washington Post and CNN reported that the US Senate Intelligence Committee plans to meet with Zatko to discuss his allegations.
Zatko was hired by founder and former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey in late 2020 after a massive hack that compromised the accounts of key users including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, reality star Kim Kardashian and Musk himself.
US lawmakers immediately raised concerns about the allegations in Zatko’s file and have pledged to look into them.
“If these claims are true, they may expose dangerous privacy and security risks for Twitter users around the world,” Senator Dick Durbin said in a statement.
#Exsecurity #chief #accuses #Twitter #hiding #major #flaws
