The upcoming trial with Elon Musk was Twitter’s primary concern on Monday. After only twenty-four hours, the social media company was already pining for simpler times before the arrival of the whistleblower.
Read on to find out how Twitter’s week went from terrible to worse than worst.
23rd August: Former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko, who was let go by CEO Parag Agrawal in January, filed an 84-page whistleblower complaint in July, which was reported on by the Washington Post and CNN.
Zatko said in his lawsuit that half of Twitter’s servers utilize vulnerable and out-of-date software, that the business values user growth over spam reduction, and that it lacks a comprehensive security strategy.
The most serious claim is that Twitter was coerced by the Indian government to hire a government agent, who, due to Twitter’s weak security, would have been able to access private user information.
24th August: Agrawal said about Zatko’s allegations at the weekly meeting of the company, telling workers, “This complaint that was filed yesterday is foundationally, technically and historically inaccurate… There are accusations in there without any evidence and many points made without important context.”
Reuters reported that during the same meeting, Twitter’s leadership informed employees that the company’s current turnover rate was 18.3 percent. Attrition was between 14% and 16% before Musk launched his $44 billion offer to purchase the company, which is on par with the industry average.
Hours later, it was reported that Zatko would be appearing before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on September 13 to examine his accusations. TechCrunch also reported that Irish and French national data protection authorities were investigating Zatko’s claim.
25th August: Agrawal was called on the spot by the head of a powerful House committee and asked to explain “disturbing” allegations of questionable privacy and security practices and deceptiveness toward regulators.
They said Zatko indicated “multiple instances where Twitter executives obfuscated and mischaracterized information to Congress, regulators, and its own board – and may have even bowed to pressure from foreign governments to put their operatives on the company’s payroll.”
“If any of these allegations are true, Twitter has a staggering security to-do list.”
26th August : Twitter founder & former chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted that he regrets the social media platform came to be a company.
