Special Report: Mudge Says Weak Defenses, Privacy Risks, Foreign Agents Plague Twitter

Research and advisory firms sought to dig up dirt on Zatko, Twitter shareholder approve Musk's $44 billion deal to buy the company

Former Twitter security executive turned whistleblower Peiter Zatko, better known in security circles as Mudge, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a highly anticipated and widely covered hearing on allegations of shoddy and almost non-existent security practices at the powerful social media company.

In his written testimony Mudge said he chose to lodge a whistleblower complaint about Twitter’s security practices because he believes “that Twitter’s unsafe handling of the data of its users and its inability or unwillingness to truthfully represent issues to its board of directors and regulators have created real risk to tens of millions of Americans, the American democratic process, and America’s national security.” He added that he also thought Twitter purposively misled regulatory agencies, violating its legal obligations in a way that he can’t ethically condone.

Mudge said he discovered after joining Twitter that “this enormously influential company was over a decade be…