Security News > 2020 > November > Legendary hacker and L0pht member Peiter Zatko joins Twitter as security chief

Twitter has hired legendary hacker Peiter "Mudge" Zatko as head of security.

Speaking to CNBC, he described his remit as including "Information security, site integrity, physical security, platform integrity - which starts to touch on abuse and manipulation of the platform - and engineering."

The hire comes mere months after a major security incident in which unauthorised third parties accessed the Twitter accounts of 130 celebrities including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, former US president Barack Obama, and current President-elect Joe Biden.

Mudge is known for his affiliations with hacker collectives L0pht, which appeared before Congress in 1998 on the subject of "Weak Computer Security in Government", and The Cult of the Dead Cow, which previously included one-time US presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke as a member.

One of his earliest accomplishments was the creation of L0phtcrack, an iconic tool for cracking Windows passwords that exposed inadequacies in early Windows security.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/11/17/peiter_zatko_twitter_security_chief/