Twitter’s former head of security is scheduled to testify before a Senate panel on Tuesday about security and privacy problems he allegedly uncovered while working at the company.
Peiter “Mudge” Zatko filed an 84-page whistleblower complaint in July to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. In the complaint, he alleges his former employer prioritized user growth over privacy and security.
Zatko accuses Twitter executives of hiding bad news instead of trying to fix problems he brought to their attention. Twitter appeared to have a high rate of security incidents, some employees had disabled security and software updates on their devices and staff had too much access to user data, Zatko alleges in the complaint. Twitter pushed back against the allegations and said the whistleblower complaint has inconsistencies, inaccuracies and lacks important context.
The complaint has sparked more scrutiny from US lawmakers and regulators who are trying to rein in the power of big tech platforms. It also comes as Twitter is in a legal fight with billionaire Elon Musk who is trying to back out of buying the company for $44 billion. Zatko alleges that Twitter lied to Musk about the number of bots on its platform and Musk’s lawyers are using the whistleblower complaint as part of their case.
Twitter fired Zatko in January, but his lawyers say that he didn’t file the complaint to benefit Musk or to harm Twitter.
Here’s what you need to know about the hearing:
When
Zatko is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 13 at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET.
How to watch
CNET will be live streaming the hearing on YouTube.
The committee is also posting live video of the hearing on its website and CSPAN is broadcasting the testimony.
What to expect
US lawmakers are trying to get to the bottom of the allegations made against Twitter while also urging the FTC to investigate the company. The whistleblower alleges that executives and board of directors violated federal law by making “false and misleading” statements to users and the Federal Trade Commission. Roughly 238 million people use Twitter daily.
Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is a ranking member of the committee, said in a statement the complaint raises “serious concerns.” The whistleblower could also provide insight into what legislation lawmakers need to draft to better protect the privacy and security of social media users.
“If these claims are accurate, they may show dangerous data privacy and security risks for Twitter users around the world,” the senators said.
Zatko already has some experience testifying before lawmakers. He’s been a part of L0pht, an influential hacking group that testified before Congress in the 1990s on security issues.
