Twitter Y Elon Musk They are warming up for the trial that they will star in from next October 17. Now, the team that represents the tycoon has sent a subpoena for Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, the former head of Security of the social network. The same made headlines during the last week for denouncing the apparent poor cybersecurity practices of the platform.
The determination does not surprise anyone, considering that some of the accusations made by the expert are aligned with the justifications presented by Elon Musk to try to cancel the purchase of Twitter. Especially when it comes to bot count and monetizable daily active users.
In Zatko’s case, the citation has been issued through a New Jersey federal court and covers both types of subpoena most common in the United States justice: duces tecum Y ad testifying. This means that the former Twitter security chief must appear to testify, and deliver all the physical evidence requested.
Elon Musk’s legal representatives want Zatko to provide documentation related to the social network’s bots and spam accounts. But they are not limited to that. They also want to collect information on possible illegal activities due to the apparent presence of infiltrated spies among company employees. In addition, they ask to know the circumstances of his dismissal and if he has received or owns shares of Twitter.
The former head of Twitter Security, a new one quoted by Elon Musk
Peiter “Mudge” Zatko is required to testify at a New Jersey law firm next september 9. Any information that Elon Musk’s lawyers can add will surely be used during the trial with Twitter that begins weeks later.
They will undoubtedly be very busy days for the security expert. On September 13, a few days after serving this subpoena, he will testify about his allegations before the US Senate Judiciary Committee.
Zatko accused Twitter of misleading its own board of directors by not acknowledging its serious security problems. He also claimed that the social network does not correctly delete the information of users who unsubscribe from their accounts. And he asserted that cybersecurity practices were very poor, with a marked lack of control over access to critical tools and the use of servers with outdated software. The document found its way to the Justice Department, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission.
Elon Musk had already quoted Jack Dorsey, founder and former CEO of Twitter, under the same modality. The former CEO of the social network must present a wide variety of documents. Among them, those related to the purchase of the company by the tycoon, as well as those related to workflows, the count of active users per day and the impact of false accounts.
In the days before Dorsey’s subpoena, Musk’s representatives had issued a similar order for Bruce Falck, a former chief revenue officer, and Kayvon Beykpour, a former Twitter product lead.