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Former Twitter manager Peiter Zatko: The platform poses a "real risk" to national security
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Lenin Nolly / dpa
Twitter's former security chief Peiter Zatko has again criticized serious gaps in the protection of user data of the online service.
The manager, who was fired in January and filed a whistleblowing complaint against the company in July, slammed Twitter leadership at a Senate hearing in Washington on Tuesday.
The deficiencies of the Internet platform were so bad during his time there that they even posed a risk to national security, Zatko explained.
The IT expert, who is also known by his pseudonym "Mudge" from earlier times as a hacker, described the situation on Twitter as a "ticking bomb at security vulnerabilities".
Combined with management's refusal to acknowledge the problems to regulators, users and investors, Twitter has become a "real risk" to millions of Americans, the democratic process and national security, Zatko said in a statement.
Alleged Chinese agent on Twitter payroll
Zatko also said at the hearing: In the week before he was fired from Twitter, he learned that an agent from China's Ministry of State Security was on Twitter's payroll.
It was not immediately clear if the suspected Chinese agent was still working at the company.
According to the Reuters news agency, Twitter initially did not respond to a request for comment.
»More than a decade behind industry standards«
When Twitter took office in 2020, IT security was "more than a decade behind industry standards," said Zatko.
His efforts to rectify the grievances were in vain.
The group management had too little idea about handling user data and put profit instead of security in the foreground.
Twitter has always vigorously denied the allegations and accused Zatko of wanting to harm his former employer.
Zatko denied acting out of resentment.
Twitter justified his dismissal with poor performance.
The statements are also relevant in view of the legal dispute between Twitter and Elon Musk over the originally planned $ 44 billion takeover of the group.
The Tesla boss considers the purchase agreement to be invalid due to alleged misrepresentations and breaches of contract by the company.
Musk has since expanded his arguments to include Zatko's criticism of the alleged lack of data security.
In October, a court will decide whether Musk can get out of the acquisition agreement.
As expected, the majority of Twitter shareholders meanwhile voted in favor of Musk's takeover bid.
The company announced this on Tuesday.
A day before the deadline, insiders said there were enough investors in favor of selling Musk.
Sol/dpa/Reuters
