Twitter Recruits Famous Hacker Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko as Head of Security

After suffering from serious security challenges, Twitter had no other option but to appoint Peter Zatko

Peter Zatko, a top hacker who is widely known by the handle “Mudge”, will take over as Twitter Head of Security and will examine Twitter’s information security, site integrity, physical security, platform integrity, and engineering.

After suffering from serious security challenges, Twitter had no other option but to appoint Peter Zatko, one of the world’s best-regarded hackers, to the new position of head of security.

This decision was made by Twitter as an attempt to increase its security and counter the increased threat of regulation and serious security breaches.

In an exclusive interview, Zatko explained that he intends to examine information security, site integrity, physical security, platform integrity and engineering.

Recently, Zatko was in charge of overseeing security at the electronic payments Unicorn Stripe. Prior to that, he worked on special projects at Google and worked as a project manager of a DARPA project focused on directing research in cybersecurity.

His career began in the 1990s when he became famous among the leading specialists in electronic piracy and defense technology systems.

Dan Kaufman, who supervised Zatko in the past and now leads the Advanced Technology and Products group at Google, said “I don’t know if anyone can fix Twitter’s security, but he’d be at the top of my list”

Over the last period, Twitter suffered from many security problems. Last July, a group of hackers deceived employees and gained access to internal tools, which allowed them to change the account settings and then tweet from the accounts of The United States President-elect Joe Biden, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The new position of Peiter Zarko allows him to have the ability to recommend structural and practical changes. His vast experience also adds up to that. Alex Stamos, a former chief security official at Facebook and a current researcher at Stanford University who helped lead efforts to fight electoral disinformation, has revealed that Zatko is the best choice for a company that lacks the financial strength of Facebook and Google.

“They are going to have to find creative solutions to these problems, and if Mudge is famous for anything in security, it is being creative,” Stamos said.

In addition to his words, Zatko stressed that he is committed to improving public conversations on Twitter, praising its last step to increase interaction by urging users to comment rather than to simply retweet.

The next step, he explained, might be forcing people to understand the long conversation before becoming part of it.

He also indicated that he appreciates Twitter’s openness to unconventional security methods, such as its suggestion to confuse bad actors by manipulating data they receive from Twitter about how people interact with their posts.

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