The Washington Post And the CNN On Tuesday, August 23, it revealed the content of a document that the former head of Twitter security, Peter Zatko – nicknamed “Mudge” in the computer security community – sent to various US regulators and parliamentary committees. These 200 pages in particular confirm that the company has serious security problems, which management has downplayed with its board of directors, and reveal several particularly problematic cases if confirmed, including the recruitment of Indian intelligence via Twitter. Zatko was fired from Twitter in early 2022 for “poor performance”.
John Tae, Mr. Zatko’s attorney and founder of the Whistleblower Assistance Organization, answered questions from Globalism.
Over the past two days, Twitter has been defending itself by presenting Mr. Zatko’s revelations as exaggerations posted by a disgruntled former employee. Is this your opinion
of course no. This is the classic defense for organizations that seek to attack the author, person, or credibility of disclosures, rather than responding to the content of disclosures. That’s ridiculous: Peiter Zatko did a great job on Twitter, and he’s already been recruited by Jack Dorsey [fondateur et ancien PDG] Because he had the credibility to get Twitter out of the security issues the company itself had created over the past decade.
His biography is impeccable: thirty years ago, he was one of those who created the ethical hacking community. He has pushed Microsoft to respond ethically and legally to security issues, and testified before the US Congress as early as 1998 on these matters. It also has a very strong credibility, not only in the cybersecurity community, but also in the intelligence community. Before Twitter, he worked for Darpa [l’Agence de recherche de l’armée américaine] In projects that are at the forefront of the United States’ offensive and defensive capabilities. He has always had the reputation of a moral and honest man; If this is the best defense Twitter can come up with, they won’t have much.
However, he was reputed to have been close to Jack Dorsey, who left the company at the end of 2021, but had a more difficult relationship with his successor, Parag Agrawal.
When Mr. Agrawal was appointed as CEO, Mr. Zatko gave an interview to him. He explained that if he wanted to leave so that he could choose his own head of security, he would leave. Mr. Agrawal said: “No, I want you to stay.” But Zatko was fired less than two months later, after raising his concerns with the board. In any case, it keeps all the information that appears in the documents sent to the organizers.
She has told the US press that Mr. Zatko has not had contact with Elon Musk, whose trial against Twitter is due to begin in October. One of the issues in this experiment will be the question of automated computations, which is an important aspect of the discoveries made by Mr. Zatko. Is he afraid that these revelations will be used in the procedure?
This is not of his interest. He had begun sounding the alarm internally in December 2021. When he was fired in January, he immediately began working on how to legally alert law enforcement and regulators. This all happened months before Elon Musk became interested in taking over Twitter. These discoveries may have influenced the proceedings, but this was by no means his motive.
It is rare for people who are so high in a company hierarchy to denounce or manage abuses in this way…
Mr. Zatko is a particularly brave person, who has worked for decades to become someone in a position to make a difference. Looking back, over the past 10 years, most whistleblowers were celibate, no kids, no credit…once you have a family and a career, it’s very hard to stand up against power structures. It’s still scary for Mr. Zatko: he has two young children and of course he’s worried about his career and his financial security…
But I am convinced that our model of disclosing information through legal channels works and makes it easier for people who witness serious violations of the law to act. Mr. Zatko has sent all relevant documents in his possession to regulators and law enforcement. From now on, we just hope they do their work and investigate these discoveries.
#Twitter #forgery #accusation #informant #information #lawyer
