Peiter Zatko, former Twitter security chief, filed a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Department of Justice through the nonprofit law firm Whistleblower Aid.disclose, alleging that Twitter has shocking institutional flaws in privacy, security and content review.
According to Peiter Zatko, Twitter lacks basic security measures in its software, and its data access rights management is quite chaotic. Even its internal management processes have many problems, resulting in an alarming number and frequency of user data privacy and security issues.
The report also revealed that half of Twitter's approximately 50 servers were running outdated software versions, while more than a quarter of employees' computers hadn't installed critical security updates. Many employees were even able to freely access data they shouldn't have. Furthermore, Peiter Zatko pointed out that Twitter lacked the internal capability to monitor the number of fake accounts, and that management had no intention of measuring the true number of fake accounts, as the results would impact the company's image and market capitalization.
Regarding Peiter Zatko's accusations, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal emphasized that the allegations were false, and also explained that Peiter Zatko was fired earlier this year due to poor performance. At the same time, Twitter spokesperson Rebecca Hahn said that security and privacy have always been the main concerns of Twitter employees, and pointed out that Peiter Zatko's statements contained a lot of false information.
However, if regulators find that Twitter misled consumers about its security and privacy practices, it could be deemed to have violated a 2011 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which required Twitter to establish a comprehensive privacy and security program, refrain from misleading consumers for 20 years, and have an independent audit evaluate it within the next 10 years.
At the same time, if Peiter Zatko's allegations are true, it will have a huge impact on Twitter's future relationship with Tesla CEO Elon Musk.Litigation arising from failed acquisitionsIf it fails, Twitter may not only lose the case and suffer a significant impact on its stock price, but may also face huge fines of up to hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal Trade Commission.
