Twitter Subpoenas Whistleblower & Former Security Chief Peiter Zatko
deadline.comTwitter subpoenaed whistleblower Peiter Zatko today, asking for a raft of documents including any related to his “separation” from the company and his buying or selling of Twitter stock.Allegations by Zatko, Twitter’s former security chief, that the company is negligent in handling cybersecurity risk and in addressing fake accounts, have turned up the heat in the social media platform’s litigation against Elon Musk.
Zatko’s accusations were sent to federal agencies and made their way to Congress, where he is scheduled testify in September.
That’s a month before a Delaware Chancery Court judge will hear a suit by Twitter against the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder for terminating his $44 billion takeover of the company.Twitter responded to the whistleblower complaints, which were revealed by the Washington Post and CNN last week, by saying the company fired Zatko in January for what it claims was poor performance, and that security and privacy are “company-wide priorities.”Musk’s defense for walking away from the deal inked in late April was based in part on claims that Twitter under-reports spam, or bot, accounts.
He’s been asking for data. The bot issue as raised by Zatko may only be tangentially related to the case, however, would look at whether Musk had been supplied with all the data he was legally entitled to under the terms of the merger agreement.
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