India, China had their agents working for Twitter, says whistleblower

Twitter whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko told the Senate Judiciary Committee in the United States on Tuesday that the social media company knowingly allowed India and China to add their agents to their workforce. Zatko, who was their former security chief, said that Twitter hired at least one agent from China’s intelligence service and accused the company of giving nations access to their data, according to AP.

Zatko has been extremely vocal about Twitter’s weak cyber defence, and said that the lack of focus on security has made the “company vulnerable to exploitation by teenagers, thieves and spies”.

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“I am here today because Twitter leadership is misleading the public, lawmakers, regulators and even its own board of directors,” Zatko said as he began his sworn testimony according to Associated Press.

“They don’t know what data they have, where it lives and where it came from and so, unsurprisingly, they can’t protect. It doesn’t matter who has keys if there are no locks,” he added.

Zatko’s testimony can be a huge boost to Tesla CEO Elon Musk who walked away from the proposed $44 billion Twitter takeover deal after accusing the platform of having a huge number of fake users.

The trial involving Musk and Twitter will begin on October 17 with the latter looking for compensation due to the deal breaking down but Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, theheadjudgeofDelaware'sCourt of Chancery, ruled that all new evidence from Zatko’s testimony will be included.

In an official statement, Twitter denied all allegations brought forward by Zatko and said that their hiring process is “independent of any foreign influence” and they give special attention to data privacy.

(With inputs from agencies)

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