Security News > 2022 > August > Twitter savaged by former security boss Mudge in whistleblower complaint

"Mr Zatko was fired from his senior executive role at Twitter in January 2022 for ineffective leadership and poor performance," a Twitter spokesperson told The Register in an emailed statement.

"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. 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 will continue to be."

Twitter is in the midst of a legal battle with billionaire Elon Musk who made an offer to buy Twitter then tried to back out after the company's value declined in conjunction with a broad market retreat.

The complaint alleges: Twitter made misrepresentations to the FTC about platform security, privacy, and integrity; Twitter violated SEC auditing rules for public companies; made fraudulent misrepresentations about securities violations to its Board of Directors; and exhibited "Negligence and even complicity with respect to efforts by foreign governments to infiltrate, control, exploit, surveil, and/or censor the company's platform, staff, and operations."

Particularly troubling is the claim that "The Indian government forced Twitter to hire specific individual(s) who were government agents who would have access to vast amounts of sensitive Twitter data."

Agrawal, in an internal memo posted to Twitter by CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan, echoes the statement provided by Twitter comms.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/08/23/twitter_security_whisterblower/