Twitter is beset internally by lack of oversight, mismanagement and insufficient attention paid to major security flaws. This is according to a filing with the Justice Department, FCC and FTC made by Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who had been hired by Twitter in 2020 to head up response to a significant hack experienced by the social media network.
In the filing, obtained by CNN and the Washington Post, Zatko alleges that executives allowed company employees to have access to some of the platform’s main controls and sensitive information with little oversight.
Also alleged in the filing is that Twitter leadership had misled its board and government regulators about security vulnerabilities, including some issues that could open the door to foreign spying and provide fodder for disinformation campaigns.
The filing details that Twitter does not reliably delete user data after accounts are canceled, and that the company has misled regulators about whether it deletes the data as it is required.
Most notably, the filing says Twitter executive don’t have the resources to fully understand the true number of bots on the platform, an issue at the heart of the dispute between Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in the billionaire’s bid to purchase the company.
Zatko was fired by Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in January, with Agrawal citing poor performance, but Zatko said he felt pressured by executives to cherry-pick data points to present to members of the board of directors, and to minimize the “extreme, egregious deficiencies” he saw in the company’s approach to cybersecurity.
A Twitter spokesperson cited Zatko’s firing in a statement addressing his allegations.
“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 we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” spokesperson Rebecca Hahn said.
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Chris Graham
