Twitter Appoints Top Hacker Mudge as Head of Security
Social media giant Twitter, under increased threat of security plagued by breaches, is appointing one of the world’s best-known hackers to tackle everything from engineering missteps to misinformation.
The organization named Peiter Zatko, also goes by the hacker name ‘Mudge’ to the new position of head of security on Monday. Zatko answers to CEO Jack Dorsey and is expected to take over management of key security functions after a 45 to 60 day review.
In an exclusive interview, Zatko said he will examine “information security, site integrity, physical security, platform integrity – which starts to touch on abuse and manipulation of the platform – and engineering.”
Zatko further added that he appreciates Twitter’s openness to unconventional security approaches, such as his proposal for confusing bad actors by manipulating the data they receive from Twitter about how people interact with their posts.
Zatko most recently oversaw security at the electronic payments unicorn ‘Stripe.’