Twitter’s Ex-Security Head Files Whistleblower Complaint on Spam, Privacy Issues
Former executive Peiter Zatko makes sweeping claims about the social-networking platform
By Sarah E. Needleman
Associated Press
August 23, 2022
WASHINGTON — A former head of security at Twitter has filed whistleblower complaints with U.S. officials, alleging that the company misled regulators about its cybersecurity defenses and its problems with fake accounts, according to reports by The Washington Post and CNN.
Peiter Zatko, Twitter’s security chief until he was fired early this year, filed the complaints last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.
The Post, which obtained the complaint, reported that among the most serious accusations is that Twitter violated the terms of an FTC settlement by falsely claiming that it had a strong security plan.
Zatko also accuses the company of deceptions involving its handling of “spam” or fake accounts, an allegation that is at the core of the attempted withdrawal of a $44 billion takeover bid for Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk.
Shares of Twitter Inc. slid 4% Tuesday.
Zatko didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday but told the Post he “felt ethically bound” to come forward.
Zatko, better known as Mudge, is a highly respected cybersecurity expert who first gained prominence in the 1990s and later worked in senior positions at the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Agency and Google. He joined Twitter at the urging of then-CEO Jack Dorsey in late 2020, the same year the company suffered an embarrassing security breach involving hackers who broke into the Twitter accounts of world leaders, celebrities and tech moguls, including Musk, in an attempt to scam their followers out of Bitcoin.
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