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Pieter “Mudge” Zatko, former head of security for Twitter, came forward as a whistleblower.
Zatko was hired directly by Jack Dorsey and Zatko was one of the top executives at Twitter.
He is blowing the whistle on Twitter and helping Elon Musk out in the process.
Zatko is claiming that Twitter did lie to Musk about the bot problem on the social media platform. He also said that Twitter’s cybersecurity is a potential national security threat.
Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, said, “We have already issued a subpoena for Mr. Zatko, and we found his exit and that of other key employees curious in light of what we have been finding.”
“Mr. Zatko was fired from his senior executive role at Twitter for poor performance and ineffective leadership over six months ago,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
“While we haven’t had access to the specific allegations being referenced, what we’ve seen so far is a narrative about our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and lacks important context.”
The Twitter spokesperson added, “Mr. Zatko’s allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders. Security and privacy have long been company-wide priorities at Twitter and we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”
CNN reported:
Zatko further alleges that Twitter’s leadership has misled its own board and government regulators about its security vulnerabilities, including some that could allegedly open the door to foreign spying or manipulation, hacking, and disinformation campaigns.
The whistleblower also alleges Twitter does not reliably delete users’ data after they cancel their accounts, in some cases because the company has lost track of the information, and that it has misled regulators about whether it deletes the data as it is required to do.
The whistleblower also says Twitter executives don’t have the resources to fully understand the true number of bots on the platform and were not motivated to. Bots have recently become central to Elon Musk’s attempts to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the company (although Twitter denies Musk’s claims).
Insider also reported:
In his complaint, addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and Department of Justice, dated July, Zatko broadly paints Twitter’s security practices as inadequate and dangerous.
In a section entitled “Lying about Bots to Elon Musk,” Zatko, a famous hacker known as “Mudge,” accuses Twitter of misrepresenting how robustly it measures and combats bots and spam accounts.
A Twitter spokesperson told Insider: “What we’ve seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.”
Elon Musk has countersued Twitter and subpoenaed Jack Dorsey in preparation for the upcoming court battle.
EWE Jest DIDN’T B00K him, Don-0 !