Security News > 2022 > August > Twitter Whistleblower Complaint: The TL;DR Version

A recently surfaced 84-page whistleblower report filed with the US government by Twitter's former head of security Peiter "Mudge" Zatko last month blasts his former employer for its alleged shoddy security practices and being out of compliance with an FTC order to protect user data.

Zatko, a respected white-hat hacker who served as Twitter's head of security for roughly 15 months between 2020 and 2022, accused Twitter of a litany of poor security and privacy practices that together constituted a national security risk.

Twitter is a mismanaged company and gives too many of its staff access to sensitive security and privacy controls without adequate oversight.

Twitter allowed some foreign governments " to infiltrate, control, exploit, surveil and/or censor the 'company's platform, staff, and operations," according to the redacted whistleblower report submitted to congress.

The thrust of Twitter's response to Zatko is that he is a disgruntled employee, bad at his job and scapegoating Twitter for his failures.

An alleged response by Twitter's CEO Parag Agrawal sent internally to Twitter employees was posted online.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/twitter-whistleblower-tldr-version/180472/