Twitter’s former chief of security accuses company of lying about bots & safety
He said that the company hid negligent security practices, misled federal regulators about its safety, and also failed to properly estimate the number of bots on the platform. Needless to say, these are serious accusations, and if they turn out to be true, it wouldn’t be good for Twitter. They could have a serious impact on the trial with Elon Musk, and also include federal fines. For context, do note that Zatko actually got fired by Twitter back in January. He says that this happened as a retaliation for his refusal to stay quiet about the company’s vulnerabilities. He actually filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month, against Twitter.
Zatko submitted a 200-page report to the SEC
His complaint has over 200 pages, and has been obtained by CNN and the Washington Post. A redacted form of that complaint was published. In his report to the SEC, Zato lists a lot of damning sub-reports. He mentions indiscriminate access, misleading the FTC, ignoring bots, issues with government agents, and a failure to delete user data when requested. Twitter did respond to Zatko, and accused him of sensationalizing and selectively presenting the information. The company said the following: “Mr. Zatko was fired from his senior executive role at Twitter for poor performance and ineffective leadership over six months ago. 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 are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and lacks important context”. The FTC is reviewing Zatko’s complaint as we speak. To make things even worse for Twitter, Elon Musk’s team already issued a subpoena to Mr. Zatko. The Twitter vs Musk trial that will begin in October. Well, on October 17, to be more accurate.
