PremiumTwitter was sent a detailed list of questions hours before the committee will hear testimony from whistle-blower Peiter Zatko, who has accused the company of failing to adequately protect data on its users.
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On September 12, hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee to hear testimony from whistleblower Peiter Zatko, the committee's leaders issued a thorough list of inquiries to Twitter. Zatko has charged the company with failing to effectively protect user data
The senators claimed in a letter to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal that Zatko's allegations, if accurate, showed an "unacceptable disregard for data security" and threatened both national security and user privacy.
Zatko held the position of head of security at Twitter for two years before being fired earlier in 2022. He alleged that Twitter disregarded its agreements with the US Federal Trade Commission and failed to resolve significant security issues in a number of complaints.
Twitter declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg. It has previously refuted Zatko's assertions, asserting that he is a disgruntled former worker who was terminated due to bad management.
As the former head of security at Twitter until his dismissal in January, Zatko has accused the social media company of making false claims about the strength of its security measures and misrepresenting how it protects itself from spammers and hackers.
“The disclosure paints a disturbing picture of a company that has fallen short of basic security standards in the technology industry, failed to adequately mitigate attempts by foreign governments to gain access to sensitive user information, and willfully misled government regulators," wrote Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin of Illinois and the panel’s top Republican, Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
The committee extended an invitation to Agrawal to speak at the hearing on September 13 at 10 AM Washington time, but he declined, according to the letter. By September 26, the senators wanted Twitter to respond to their inquiries.
Concerns were raised by the senators over Twitter's policies and practises for safeguarding user data against insider threats posed by foreign intelligence. They cited the case of the ex-Twitter worker who was found guilty by a federal jury in August of serving as an unauthorised foreign agent for Saudi Arabia.
(With agency inputs)
