{"id":20694,"date":"2022-09-19T07:21:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T07:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says"},"modified":"2022-09-19T08:17:22","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T08:17:22","slug":"twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says","title":{"rendered":"Twitter misleading the public, whistleblower says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>Twitter\u2019s former head of security, Peiter Zatko, has told US lawmakers the firm is \u201cmisleading the public\u201d about how secure the platform really is. He claimed Twitter was \u201ca decade behind\u201d security standards, that users\u2019 data is not sufficiently protected and that too many staff have access to it.<\/p>\n

Mr Zatko was giving evidence following an 84-page long whistleblowing complaint he made about security practices inside the social network. He was fired by the firm in January.<\/p>\n

He also said \u201cone-time fines\u201d imposed by regulators over breaches of rules on data protection \u201cdidn\u2019t bother Twitter at all\u201d. In his damning testimony, Mr Zatko described an organisation prioritising revenue generation above everything else.<\/p>\n

At the start of the hearing he grew tearful about his role as a whistleblower, saying it was not a decision he had taken lightly. \u201cI\u2019m risking my career and reputation\u2026 if something good comes out of it five or ten years down the line, it will be worth it,\u201d he said later on.<\/p>\n

He also said he still thought Twitter offered a good service but laughed when asked whether he would buy it \u2013 a wry nod to the saga of Elon Musk\u2019s deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepends on the price,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

National security<\/b><\/p>\n

During his questioning, Mr Zatko said that employees had expressed concerns to him that Twitter was carrying advertising from \u201corganisations which may or may not be associated with the Chinese government\u201d, a potential national security risk.<\/p>\n

When he raised concerns with Twitter executives he was told it would be \u201cproblematic\u201d to lose that revenue stream, he said. He also said he was troubled by Twitter\u2019s attitude to other national security issues he had raised.<\/p>\n

He said \u201chalf the company\u201d were engineers and they all had access to users\u2019 personal information. It is believed around 4,000 employees had access to this data.<\/p>\n

He said he was worried that rogue employees had the power to take information without leaving a trace. He added that there was a danger that employees could \u201cdox\u201d users, where private information is posted online, though he had not seen this happen.<\/p>\n

He said Twitter does not log the activity of employees who access private data \u2013 which surprised him. He also said that Twitter\u2019s security systems made it difficult to monitor potential espionage. In a previous statement Mr Zatko said that an Indian agent had been employed by the company .<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company did not in fact disclose to users that it was believed by the executive team that the Indian government had succeeded in placing agents on the company payroll,\u201d Mr Zatko said last month.<\/p>\n

Musk and spam<\/b><\/p>\n

He has previously supported Elon Musk\u2019s claim that the platform has more spam and fake accounts than it has admitted \u2013 though he didn\u2019t elaborate on this.<\/p>\n

His testimony focussed on national security issues \u2013 and is not officially connected with Mr Musk\u2019s attempt to pull out of his deal to buy Twitter for $44bn \u2013 that case is due to begin in October.<\/p>\n

Even so, the flurry of accusations from a former senior employee will not help Twitter\u2019s case. Mr Zatko was personally hired by Twitter\u2019s co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, after a high-profile attack of the platform\u2019s celebrity accounts. The whistleblower said that peoples\u2019 personal information was put at risk. Information held about users includes:<\/p>\n

Phone number<\/b><\/p>\n

IP address \u2013 from which a physical address could potentially be found. Email address Type of device Type of browser Location a user connected from This data could enable an individual to be targeted in the real world, he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Zatko has previously worked for the US government and Google, and is well-regarded in the information security community. His lawyer John Tye described him as \u201ca pretty remarkable guy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Senator Chuck Grassley from the US Judiciary Committee said in his opening remarks that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal had declined to attend the hearing. Mr Agrawal\u2019s last activity on his own Twitter account was a re-tweet of the firm\u2019s chairman Bret Taylor in response to Elon Musk on 4 August.<\/p>\n

Twitter has said that Peiter Zatko lost his job because of ineffective leadership and poor performance, and that his allegations are both inaccurate and inconsistent.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. Twitter\u2019s former head of security, Peiter Zatko, has told US lawmakers the firm is \u201cmisleading the public\u201d about how secure the platform really is. He claimed Twitter was \u201ca decade behind\u201d security standards, that users\u2019 data is not sufficiently protected and that too many staff have access to it. Mr Zatko was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,245,241,2008],"class_list":["post-20694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritius","tag-twitter"],"yoast_head":"\nTwitter misleading the public, whistleblower says - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Twitter\u2019s former head of security, Peiter Zatko, has told US lawmakers the firm is \u201cmisleading the public\u201d about how sec ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Twitter misleading the public, whistleblower says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Twitter\u2019s former head of security, Peiter Zatko, has told US lawmakers the firm is \u201cmisleading the public\u201d about how sec ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-19T07:21:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-19T08:17:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_13-632825718e9f2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"976\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"549\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Twitter misleading the public, whistleblower says\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-19T07:21:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-19T08:17:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says\"},\"wordCount\":725,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_13-632825718e9f2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\",\"Twitter\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/twitter-misleading-the-public-whistleblower-says\",\"name\":\"Twitter misleading the public, whistleblower says - 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