New Delhi: Peiter Zatko former head of security in Twitter has alleged that the Indian government forced social media giant Twitter to employ a person, who according to Zatko, was a ‘government agent.’
Zatko, a renowned hacker in the IT world, fondly known as “Mudge”, in his complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission, stated that the social media giant, Twitter, hired those ‘agents’ on a regular payroll. These individuals were given full access to a large amount of user data that were highly sensitive, thus violating Twitter’s security and privacy policy.
Zatko’s complaint stated that by agreeing with the Indian Government, Twitter compromised the data safety of millions of its users. In order words, Twitter was equally responsible and a threat to any democratic governance.
“The Indian government forced Twitter to hire a specific individual(s) who were government agents, who (because of Twitter’s basic architectural flaws) would have access to vast amounts of Twitter sensitive data,” the complaint notes.
“By knowingly permitting an Indian government agent direct unsupervised access to the company’s systems and user data, Twitter executives violated the company’s commitments to its users,” the complaint said.
Zatko’s 84-page complaint was obtained by The Washinton Post on Tuesday.
Zatko was fired for poor performance: Twitter
Reacting to Zatko’s allegation, a Twitter spokesperson said that the former head of security was fired in January for “ineffective leadership and poor performance”.
“What we’ve seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lack important context. Mr Zatko’s allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders. Security and privacy have long been company-wide priorities at Twitter and will continue to be,” the spokesperson said.
Twitter cares less about securing its user data: Zatko
The complaint alleges that Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal was “lying” when he tweeted in May that the company was “strongly incentivized to detect and remove as much spam as we possibly can.”
Twitter cares less about securing its user data
Zatko was quoted by The Washington Post.
The whistleblower further alleges that Twitter has always been more focused on increasing its users than reducing spam accounts.
“Twitter is grossly negligent in several areas of information security. If these problems are not corrected, regulators, media and users of the platform will be shocked when they inevitably learn about Twitter’s severe lack of security basics,” the complaint stated.
Zatko’s complaint also stated that along with the Indian government, the governments of Russia and Nigeria “sought, with varying success, to force Twitter to hire local FTEs (full-time employees) that could be used as leverage”.
Reaction to allegations against Twitter:
The national spokesperson of the All India Trinamool Congress, (TMC) Saket Gokhale, has expressed shock over Zatko’s allegations against Twitter. He wrote to Congress leader and Chairperson of the Parliament Standing Committee on Communication and IT, Shashi Tharoor requesting an urgent probe against the Modi government.
“The shocking allegation of Mr Zatko comes on the back of credible reports which said that the union Government had surreptitiously deployed the notorious spyware Pegasus on the phones of various several activists, journalists and various opposition leaders in India,” stated Gokhale.
The letter further stated that if the allegation by Zatko is true, then the matter should be investigated by an independent agency.
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