San Francisco, Aug 23 : Twitter’s former head of security, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko claims that the platform run by Parag Agrawal was deceived about the actual number of bots that use the platform as well as misled regulators from federal agencies regarding security of users as reported by media reports on Tuesday.According to his disclosures that was obtained from CNN as well as The Washington Post, Zatko declared that Twitter has “major security issues that could pose a threat to its users’ personal data and company shareholders as well as national security and to the democratic process”.
Zatko who was directly reporting to CEO Zatko, was terminated by Twitter in January of this year for “poor performance”.
In the last month, he filed a complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in which he accused Twitter of lying to shareholders and breaking an agreement it entered into with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to adhere to certain security standards.
In his report as a whistleblower Zatko said that Twitter’s management “has been misleading its own board and government regulators regarding its security flaws which include those that could let in foreign surveillance or manipulation or hacking campaigns”.
He added that Twitter does not “reliably delete user’s personal information after they have cancelled their accounts”.
The whistleblower further said Twitter executives do not have the resources needed to fully comprehend the actual amount of bots running on the platform and are in no way motivated to.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has canceled the $44 billion Twitter takeover deal because of the real existence of bots on Twitter.
Zatko’s lawyer informed CNN that he hasn’t been in contact with Musk.
The lawyer representing Musk stated the legal team had already served a subpoena of Zatko, “and we found his departure as well as that of other employees who were interested in light of the information we’ve discovered”.
Twitter stated in an announcement that privacy and security are two of the top priority for the firm.
The company stated that it “provides clear tools that allow users to control privacy, as well as targeting and sharing of data”.
na/vd
