Twitter executives Wednesday objected to what they said were “false” narratives fabricated around claims by former executives about the company’s security practices.
At the weekly all-hands meeting, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal addressed a whistleblower complaint by former security chief Peiter Zatko, who was fired in January. Zatko’s complaint, which accuses Twitter of lying about its security practices and violating his 2011 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission, went public Tuesday.
“This complaint filed yesterday is fundamentally, technically and historically inaccurate,” Agrawal told employees at a conference, which the New York Times heard. accuses without any evidence and makes many points without significant context.”
Other executives, including general counsel Sean Edgett, agreed with Agrawal. Heads of Privacy and Security, Damien Kieran and Lea Kissner, talked about the security improvements the company has made.
“We have never materially misrepresented to regulators, to the board, to all of you,” Edgett said. “We are in full compliance with the FTC’s consent orders.” added that an external auditor reviews Twitter’s compliance with the mandate every two years.
Kieran also refuted Zatko’s claim that Twitter’s infrastructure lacked security, saying that after the 2020 hack, the company forced employees to install security updates on their laptops and use physical authentication keys. and requested that access to internal systems be locked down.
“Peter Madge Zatko supports all statements in the Disclosure Statement and looks forward to meeting with the regulator to discuss his allegations,” said Debra Katz, an attorney for Mr. Zatko. rice field. “Twitter’s efforts to smear him are pathetic and ultimately useless.”
Zatko is scheduled to testify about his disclosure before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 13.
At the conference, Dalana Brand, Twitter’s Chief Talent and Diversity Officer, also spoke about the company’s one-year turnover rate rising to about 18.3%. She attributed it to “internal challenges” and the macroeconomic environment. Twitter says she will have more than 7,500 full-time workers as of the end of 2021.
A Twitter spokesperson said there has been a decline in workforce across the tech industry, partly due to the global macroeconomic climate, but the company remains focused on supporting its business and employees. said it does.
Zatko’s allegations are about to be brought to Twitter’s lawsuit against Elon Musk, who agreed to buy the social media company for $44 billion in April but has since abandoned the deal. Twitter is suing the billionaire in a Delaware state court to force it to complete the acquisition.
Musk’s legal team took Zatko’s complaint as evidence that Twitter is misleading people about the number of spam accounts on its platform. Musk cited a lack of disclosure about spam accounts as the reason for terminating the deal.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Musk’s lawyers referred to Zatko’s complaint and asked the judge to ask Twitter to provide more information about bots and spam. A lawyer for Twitter said the company had already provided all the data it needed to test the bot’s aggregation, and argued that Musk’s request for additional data was unrelated to the case.
“Whistleblower complaints have been publicly filed citing false information provided,” Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, said. “He was one of the few executives in the company.”
The judge said she would consider the matter and make a decision later.