Twitter whistleblower Peter Zatko says the company ignored foreign spies on employees

Twitter’s former security chief criticized the platform Tuesday in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, claiming it prioritized revenue growth over content moderation and corporate responsibility.

Peter Zatko, who filed a whistleblower complaint with several government agencies over the summer, also alleged that Twitter failed to deal seriously with foreign spies who may have infiltrated its ranks.

He recalled a conversation with an unnamed executive about a potential “foreign agent” on employees, after similar concerns had already been raised about at least one other employee. According to Zatko’s testimony, the CEO replied, “Well, since we already have one, what does it matter if we have more? Let’s continue to grow the office.”

The former security chief was fired by Twitter earlier this year, even though he signed a nearly $7 million settlement agreement in June. according to The Wall Street JournalDeal included Non-disclosure and non-derogation provisions; Crucially, though, it didn’t stop him from filing a whistleblower complaint or testifying before Congress.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Zatko claimed that Twitter lacks “basic, basic tools and access control,” making it difficult to determine when sensitive data might have been compromised — and by whom. He added that engineers could theoretically try to sell access to user accounts on the black market, and that the company might have trouble rooting out the culprit.

Zatko – who previously worked as a hacker and helped companies find vulnerabilities – has linked many problems to a culture of disorganization and misplaced priorities. “They are simply not willing to put in the effort at the expense of other efforts such as increasing revenue,” he said, noting that Twitter often lacks staff with the language skills needed to address foreign content editing issues. “They are only able to focus on one crisis at a time,” he said. And that crisis is not complete, it has simply been replaced by another crisis.

Senators expressed serious concerns about other issues raised by Zatko, including that CEO Parag Agrawal considered bowing to Russian demands before the war in Ukraine, which would have risked allowing the government to “watch and monitor Russian users.” Agrawal was the chief technology officer at the time, and Twitter ultimately did not agree to the demands.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast, but the company previously challenged Zatko’s credibility, saying his accusations were “full of inaccurate information” and that he was fired “due to ineffective leadership and poor performance.”

Zatko’s highly public campaign against Twitter comes at a moment fraught with business. The company signed a $44 billion buyout agreement with Elon Musk in the spring, but the billionaire has since been rocking, declaring that Twitter hasn’t been transparent about the amount of spam and fake accounts on its platform.

In an effort to enforce the deal, Twitter referred the dispute to a Delaware court, and some experts initially said Musk’s arguments for backing down seemed too weak. It remains to be seen what effect Zatko’s allegations will have on the proceedings.

For now, Musk is clearly enjoying the drama. On Tuesday, he tweeted an emoji of a bucket of popcorn. He also changed his display name to “Naughtius Maximus”, a phrase he used earlier during this link To a drawing by Monty Python of a fictional Roman named “Pegus Decus”.

At the time – and as an illustration of how he used the platform – Musk followed up with his own thought: “What if your name is Johnson & u works at Johnson & Johnson? “



[ad_2]

Related posts

Leave a Comment