Twitter whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko testifies to Congress : NPR

Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, former head of security at Twitter, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on data security at Twitter, on Capitol Hill, September 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

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Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, former head of security at Twitter, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on data security at Twitter, on Capitol Hill, September 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Twitter executives put profits ahead of security, leaving the door open to infiltration by foreign agents and hackers, the company’s former head of security told Congress on Tuesday.

“Twitter leadership is misleading the public, lawmakers, regulators and even its own board of directors,” Peiter Zatko testified during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “The company’s cybersecurity failures make it vulnerable to exploitation, causing real harm to real people.”

Zatko, who’s also known by his hacker name, Mudge, was hired to lead security at Twitter in 2020, after teenaged hackers took over high-profile verified accounts. He was fired in January of this year. In an 84-page federal whistleblower complaint made public last month, he accused the company of practicing lax security, neglecting user privacy, violating a 2011 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, and knowingly employing foreign government agents who had access to internal systems and data.

His allegations have raised alarm bells in Washington, given Twitter’s role as a place where government leaders, dissidents and businesses go to get their message out.

Zatko’s disclosures have also thrown a new twist into Twitter’s legal battle with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is trying to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the company. The billionaire has seized on Zatko’s claims of as further justification for walking away from the purchase without penalty.

In Tuesday’s hearing, which ran for more than two hours, Zatko painted a portrait of a company plagued by widespread security issues and unable to control the data it collects. Calm and measured, he stuck closely to his expertise, unpacking technical details of Twitter’s systems with real-world examples of how information held by the company could be misused.

“It’s not far-fetched to say that an employee inside the company could take over the accounts of all of the senators in this room,” he warned.

After the hearing, Twitter pushed back against Zatko’s claims. “Today’s hearing only…