Twitter’s ex-security chief accuses company of hiding major flaws
- Peiter Zatko’s whistle-blower testimony could impact the looming court fight over Elon Musk’s bid to cancel his US$44 billion buyout of the platform
- Former hacker warned of obsolete servers and vulnerable software, and said Twitter significantly underestimated number of fake and spam accounts
Twitter misled users and US regulators about “extreme, egregious” gaps in its online protections, the platform’s ex-security chief claimed in whistle-blower testimony that could impact the court fight over Elon Musk’s buyout bid.
Peiter Zatko’s complaint, which was published on Tuesday by US media, also accused Twitter of significantly underestimating the number of fake and spam accounts – a key element in Musk’s argument for trying to cancel his US$44 billion deal to own the platform.
CNN and The Washington Post quote Zatko’s filing to the market watchdog Securities and Exchange Commission as accusing Twitter of “negligence, wilful ignorance, and threats to national security and democracy”.
Zatko, who Twitter says it fired earlier this year for poor performance, warns of obsolete servers, software vulnerable to computer attacks and executives seeking to hide the number of hacking attempts, both from US authorities and from the company’s board of directors.
The hacker-turned-executive, who goes by the nickname “Mudge”, also claims that Twitter prioritises growing its user base over fighting spam and bots, the filing says.