Elon Musk should like the report: Twitter’s ex-head of security accuses his former employer of serious negligence. The former hacker was fired in January for leadership failure. The online network denies the allegations.
The former head of security at Twitter accuses the online network of covering up security gaps. The “Washington Post” and the broadcaster CNN quoted from an 84-page report by Peiter Zatko to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice and the US Competition Authority last month. In it, the ex-security chief writes of “serious and shocking vulnerabilities”, of executives “looking the other way” and a threat to “national security and democracy”.
On request, Twitter rejected the allegations as “riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies”. The company assured that the security and privacy of data are priorities for Twitter. With his allegations, Zatko harms the company, its customers and its shareholders.
The report quoted speaks of outdated servers, vulnerable operating systems and executives who have covered up a series of hacking attacks on Twitter data – both from the supervisory authorities and from the board of directors. In the report, Zatko also accuses Twitter of putting the fight against spam and bots on the back burner – the growth in user numbers comes first. According to the US media, Zatko even called a tweet by Twitter boss Parag Agrawal from May a lie in the report. Agrawal had assured that Twitter is doing everything possible to detect and remove spam as quickly as possible.
The question of the number of spam or fake accounts on Twitter and the true number of active users is at the center of the dispute over the takeover by high-tech billionaire Elon Musk. Musk is demanding documentation from co-founder and ex-Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, according to court documents released Monday. He is thus further collecting material for the October trial over the question of whether he must take over Twitter or can withdraw from the business.
The Washington Post and CNN reported that the US Senate Intelligence Committee wanted to hear Zatko. The former hacker, known by the name “Mudge” (English: curmudgeon), was hired by Dorsey at the end of 2020. Zatko had previously hacked the accounts of numerous celebrities. He was fired in January for “unproductive” leadership and “poor results.”
