Bombshell report: Twitter's ex-security chief calls platform a threat to national security

The latest technology threat to U.S. national security doesn't come from China. In fact, it is from a social media site that was developed in the states and is headquartered in San Francisco. CNN, in an exclusive report that it disseminated in tandem with The Washington Post, reports that Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, former head of security at Twitter, has blown the whistle on the social media site's alleged use of users' personal data calling Twitter a national security threat in a document obtained by CNN.

The disclosure, sent to federal agencies and Congress, characterizes Twitter as a mismanaged company swirling with chaos. The report says that Twitter allowed approximately half of its workforce to have access to its main controls. Zatko also claims that the U.S. government provided Twitter with specific evidence showing that at least one employee and perhaps more, were working for another government's intelligence service.

The document alleges that current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Twitter's former chief technology officer who replaced co-founder Jack Dorsey when he stepped down last year, told Zatko that Twitter should give in to Russian demands that would have meant censorship or surveillance of the site. Zatko wrote in his document that "The fact that Twitter's current CEO even suggested Twitter become complicit with the Putin regime is cause for concern about Twitter's effects on U.S. national security."

This report comes just two weeks after Ahmad Abouammo, a former Twitter employee, was convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia. Among the charges against him was one that said Abouammo tried to conceal a payment made by a member of the Saudi royal family.

Another claim made by the whistleblower is that Twitter had "never been in compliance" with demands made by the FTC a decade ago. He also says that Twitter suffers from an "anomalously high rate of security incidents," running at a rate of about one per week forcing the company to make disclosures to government agencies. Zatko was fired by Twitter this past February and wrote Twitter's board to inform them that "Based on my professional experience, peer companies do not have this magnitude or volume of incidents."

Twitter responded to CNN by saying that its FTC compliance record speaks for itself citing audits it files to the agency under the 2011 FTC consent order which Zatko did not participate in. The company also says that it is compliant with privacy rules and has been transparent when speaking to regulators about the problems with its system.

Today's bombshell report could help Elon Musk whose $44 billion bid for Twitter has been halted over Twitter's refusal to provide data to confirm the percentage of bots on the site. Musk says the figure is higher than Twitter claims and both parties are suing each other as the Tesla CEO seeks to terminate his bid. The papers signed by Musk for the acquisition are binding and they do not mention anything about Twitter having a certain percentage of accounts that are controlled by bots.

Still, Musk says that a high number of bot accounts can degrade the user experience on the site and also negatively impact the long-term value of his purchase. The case, to be heard in Delaware Chancery Court, will take place starting in October. Zatko was told in early 2021, well before Musk made his offer, that Twitter does not know how many bots are on the site and said that Twitter "had no appetite to properly measure the prevalence of bots" fearing that it would hurt the valuation of the firm.

You can be sure that Musk's legal team has been going over the document written by the whistleblower circling the part about the company's reluctance to count the number of bot accounts.

Twitter's stock is down today following the news. The shares are off 5.4% or $2.30 to $40.71 today in New York. Musk's bid for the company amounted to $54.20. The stock is now 25% below the price that Musk said that he would pay.