Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, the previous Twitter safety chief whose explosive disclosures alleged serious security flaws and misleading practices throughout the firm, has obtained a subpoena to look for a deposition within the ongoing lawsuit between Twitter and Elon Musk.
The request places Twitter’s whistleblower on the heart of Musk’s ongoing authorized combat with Twitter, which he agreed to buy in April. Musk has sought to void the deal, citing most of the identical points detailed in Zatko’s disclosures.
Zatko is scheduled to be deposed in reference to the subpoena on September ninth.
Musk’s authorized staff took motion shortly after Zatko’s claims turned public, telling reporters they had been within the means of submitting a subpoena as early as August twenty third. Nonetheless, the paperwork had been solely formally filed on Monday, giving the request authorized drive and making its particulars public for the primary time.
In an attached document (pages 11 to 14), Musk’s staff particulars a spread of paperwork and communications topic to the subpoena, together with any supplies regarding the impression of spam on Twitter’s enterprise or referring to the notoriously troublesome mDAU figure as a “key metric.” The court docket may also evaluate supplies associated to the tip of Zatko’s employment at Twitter and his ongoing possession of Twitter inventory. Moreover, the court docket requires any paperwork associated to criminal activity by Twitter or any overseas intelligence brokers employed by the corporate.
Zatko’s disclosures, filed with the SEC and first obtained by The Washington Submit and CNN, made quite a few claims of negligent safety procedures and deliberately misleading practices. Amongst claims made within the paperwork, Zatko alleges that Twitter knowingly downplayed the extent of bot exercise on the platform — one thing that Musk has cited as a central motive for trying to again out of the deal to buy the corporate.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has disputed Zatko’s claims, branding them a “false narrative” in an electronic mail despatched to workers and statements despatched to the media. Subsequently, many main voices within the discipline of cybersecurity got here ahead to endorse Zatko’s credentials and track record, with veteran cybersecurity journalist Kim Zetter tweeting that there was “most likely no safety exec with extra ethics, extra credibility than Mudge.”
