PN >>17927293 Halaby thread: The stuff in the Twitter whistleblower report is much crazier than anything in the Twitter files
Twitter whistleblower raises alarms on user data, security and more. Aug. 23, 2022
Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko issues report alleging Twitter cybersecurity has “egregious deficiencies”
Who is ‘Mudge’?
Dorsey brought Zatko onboard after the incident in 2020, where he was made responsible for a wide array of departments such as information security, content moderation and privacy, per CNN.
Zatko had previouslyworked in senior roles at Google, Stripe and the U.S. Department of Defense.
He was formerly the head of the cyber security mission at theDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
In the 1990s he was one of the leaders of a hacking group called the Cult of the Dead Cow alongside Beto O’Rourke, pulling the infamous stunt of handing out CDs that had the tools to hack Windows, in an effort to get Microsoft to improve its security, per Reuters.
Renee Rush, who worked with Zatko at DARPA and came out of retirement to join him at Twitter, told The Washington Post “He goes between worlds, and he has a vision he can execute. That’s a unicorn.”
Potential consequences
Jon Leibowitz, former chair of the FTC during Twitter’s 2011 charges, said the company could be liable for large penalties, “billions of dollars in new fines for Twitter if it’s found to have violated its legal obligations,” per CNN.
Leibowitz added that he thinks “the FTC should very seriously consider not just fining the corporation but also putting the executives responsible under order.” He admits that a violation might be far-fetched.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Zatko said “I joined Twitter because it’s a critical resource to the world,” and he believes it's his ethical responsibility to bring this information to light. “I want to finish the job Jack brought me in for, which is to improve the place.”
https://www.deseret.com/2022/8/23/23318164/peiter-mudge-zatko-twitter-whistleblower-report