Twitter Appoints Former Hacker To Head Of Cybersecurity

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appointed former hacker Peiter Zatko as Twitter's head of cybersecurity and security. He will handle everything from technical errors to misinformation that often circulates on Twitter.

Peiter Zatko himself, is widely known under the pseudonym Mudge. With Zatko joining, it is hoped that it can bring about major changes in Twitter's security system.

According to NBCNews, Zatko himself has accepted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's "proposal", and will take over security management, after a 45 to 60 day review.

"Information security, site integrity, physical security, platform integrity - starting to touch on platform abuse and manipulation - and engineering fields." said Zatko, Tuesday, November 17.

Zatko is currently overseeing the electronic payment security of a unicorn, Stripe. Previously, he worked on a special project at Google and oversaw grants for cybersecurity projects at the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research and Projects Agency (DARPA).

Zatko's colorful career began in the 1990s, when he simultaneously did covert work for government contractors and was among the leaders of Cult of the Dead Cow, a hacking group notorious for releasing Windows hacking tools to encourage Microsoft to increase security.

"I don't know if anyone can fix Twitter's security, but he will be top of my list," said Dan Kaufman, who oversees Zatko at DARPA and now heads a product group at Google.

Twitter itself is facing many security challenges. In July, a group of young hackers tricked employees into gaining access to an in-house tool, which allowed them to change account settings and then upload tweets from accounts belonging to high-profile individuals, including accounts of presidential candidate Joe Biden, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk .

"This summer's data breaches are an important reminder of how far Twitter needs to go to build some of the basic security functions needed to run services targeted by adversaries who are much more skilled than the youth arrested over the incident," said Alex Stamos, former head of security for Facebook and Stanford researchers, who are currently leading efforts to combat electoral disinformation.

Stamos, who has worked for security consultancy Zatko, said Zatko is perfect for companies that do not have financial strength, such as Facebook and Google. "They have to find creative solutions to these problems, and if Mudge is known for his safety, that means they are being creative."

Looks like the cat is out of the bag. I'm very excited to be joining the executive team at Twitter! I truly believe in the mission of (equitably) serving the public conversation. I will do my best! https://t.co/ZQkhYTXLQZ

- Mudge (@dotMudge) November 16, 2020

Zatko is committed to increasing public conversation on Twitter. He praised Twitter's recent moves that encourage users to comment, not just retweet, which also forces people to understand the conversation before participating in it.

Zatko appreciates Twitter's openness to unconventional security approaches, such as his proposal to confuse cybercriminals by manipulating the data they receive from Twitter about how people interact with their posts.

"They are willing to take risks," Zatko said of Twitter. "With algorithmic challenges and algorithmic bias, they don't just sit around and wait for someone else to solve a problem."