Republican presses Twitter chief Elon Musk to better protect U.S. user data

Reuters

Published Nov 23, 2022 12:49PM ET

Updated Nov 23, 2022 05:20PM ET

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Senate Republican Chuck Grassley urged Elon Musk, who recently acquired Twitter, to conduct a threat assessment at the social company to better protect U.S. user data, following up on concerns raised by a whistleblower.

Hacker Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, a whistleblower who served as Twitter's head of security until his firing in January, testified in September that some Twitter employees were concerned the Chinese government would be able to collect data on the company's users.

In a letter to Musk dated Tuesday and released on Wednesday, Grassley, the top Republican on the U.S. Judiciary Committee, asked Twitter to perform a threat assessment "of Twitter's current security posture and systems to better protect user data and privacy." He also asked for the committee staff to be briefed on the findings.

"Twitter collects vast amounts of data on American citizens. Americans have a vested interest in ensuring that their private data is secure, and that the companies which they have

entrusted with their private data have not been infiltrated by foreign agents," Grassley wrote.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zatko testified that a foreign agent could use malware to steal Twitter users personal information, and use that to gain access to sensitive data on the person's phone, among other dangers.