Former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko has accused the company of misleading US federal regulators about security policies and spam, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing the whistleblower's complaint
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd August, 2022) Former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko has accused the company of misleading US federal regulators about security policies and spam, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing the whistleblower's complaint.
The complaint filed in July with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) along with other federal agencies accused the Twitter leadership of cheating regulators and the company's board of directors about "extreme, egregious deficiencies" in its defenses against hackers and fighting spam, according to the report.
Zatko alleges Twitter violated the terms of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by falsely claiming that it had a solid security plan. The former security chief also noted he warned his colleagues about the vulnerability of half of Twitter's servers and software. Twitter executives also hide most serious information about the number of breaches and lack of security, providing data about unimportant measures instead, the complaint claims.
The complaint argues that thousands of Twitter personnel still had poorly tracked internal access to the most important software, which became the reason for many breaches, including involving accounts of such high-profile users as former US presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, as well as entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The whistleblower says Twitter prioritizes user numbers growth over preventing spam. This approach allegedly allowed the leadership to get as much as $10 million in individual bonuses tied to an increase in daily users, it added.
The complaint also accused Twitter's Chief Executive Parag Agrawal of "lying" when he tweeted in May about the readiness to detect and remove as much spam as possible.
Zatko explained his decision to make the situation public as an extension of his work to expose vulnerabilities in software and attract attention to systemic problems in cybersecurity.
Twitter spokesperson Rebecca Hahn said that security and privacy are the company's top priority. She accused Zatko, who was fired several months ago "for poor performance and leadership," of seeking to inflict harm on Twitter and its users.
Hahn said Twitter is fully cooperating with the SEC and other regulators, and "fully stands by" its filings and approach to fighting spam, the report read.
