Twitter reaches agreement with whistleblower over $7 million payout

In a settlement that took place in June, Twitter agreed to pay a former employee around $7 million.

The agreement that Peiter Zatko had with the company over lost wages did not prohibit him from launching the lawsuit that is now a part of the Elon Musk case.

According to persons familiar with the subject, Twitter Inc. agreed in June to pay around $7 million to the whistleblower whose charges would be included in Elon Musk’s action against the firm. The case will be brought against Twitter by Musk.

The agreement was finalised just a few days before Peiter Zatko submitted his complaint to the appropriate authorities in July.

Hacker Mr. Zatko served as Twitter’s head of security until January, when he was terminated from his position.

In his whistleblower complaint, Mr. Zatko accuses the corporation of failing to secure critical customer data and lying about its security concerns. He also claims that the company lied about its security vulnerabilities.

According to the persons who were interviewed, the private deal that Twitter reached in June was connected to Mr. Zatko’s missed remuneration and after months of mediation over the possible pay of tens of millions of dollars.

When an executive abruptly quits a firm and leaves behind prospective stock options and other money, it is not uncommon for the parties involved to enter into such compensation arrangements.

According to the persons who spoke with, Mr. Zatko agreed to the terms of a nondisclosure agreement as a condition of the settlement, which prohibits him from publicly discussing his time spent working at Twitter or criticising the business.

According to what they indicated, two of the few settings in which he is entitled to talk openly are Congressional hearings and agency whistleblower complaints. Such exemptions are customary in compensation settlements.

On Tuesday, Mr. Zatko is scheduled to appear before the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate to examine the charges he has made regarding security lapses at Twitter.

On the same day, shareholders of Twitter are being asked to vote on whether or not they approve of Mr. Musk’s planned purchase of the social media business.

Since his allegations were made public, Mr. Zatko has become a crucial protagonist in a legal battle being waged by Twitter in an effort to persuade Mr. Musk to carry through with his agreement to purchase the business for $44 billion.

One of Mr. Musk’s attorneys made a reference to Twitter paying Mr. Zatko $7 million at a hearing that took place on Tuesday, but they did not clarify that the payment was part of a settlement agreement.

Mr. Zatko stated in his complaint that he “uncovered extreme, egregious deficiencies by Twitter in every area of his mandate,” including privacy, digital and physical security, platform integrity, and content moderation. He also mentioned that he “uncovered extreme, egregious deficiencies by Twitter in every area of his mandate.”

Twitter has stated that Mr. Zatko was terminated “for ineffective leadership and poor performance” and that his whistleblower complaint “is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.” Twitter also stated that Mr. Zatko’s termination was “for ineffective leadership and poor performance.”

In the meanwhile, Twitter has filed a lawsuit against Mr. Musk after he attempted to back out of his agreement to purchase the firm.

He has been contending that Twitter has misrepresented its business, notably in relation to the amount of spam or bot accounts, which Twitter denies is a problem.

A judge concluded on Wednesday that Mr. Musk is permitted to alter his countersuit against Twitter so that it incorporates the charges that were made in Mr. Zatko’s lawsuit.

On October 17 at the Delaware Chancery Court, a trial without a jury is planned to begin. The trial will last for five days.

According to some of the persons who are familiar with the situation, at one point in the course of the discussions, Mr. Zatko raised the amount of the settlement he demanded by about five times.

It was not possible to find out what his demand was at the time, and it is common for CEOs to ask for a great deal more than they end up getting.

Late in the month of August, Mr. Zatko’s concerns regarding Twitter were brought to the attention of the general public as a result of a whistleblower complaint that he had submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Justice Department, and the Federal Trade Commission, which was then leaked to various media outlets such as the Washington Post and CNN.

In a prior interview with The Wall Street Journal, John Tye, the founder of Whistleblower Aid, the charity that assisted in the filing of the whistleblower claims, stated that Mr. Zatko made his initial contact with the group in early March.

In addition to this, Mr. Tye stated that Mr. Zatko has never seen or talked with Mr. Musk, and that Mr. Musk’s team has not been in communication with the nonprofit organisation over Mr. Zatko’s complaint.

One of Mr. Zatko’s attorneys, Alexis Ronickher of Katz Banks Kumin, stated in a written statement that “Mr. Zatko could have kept silent about what he observed at Twitter to protect his career and family.” Ronickher is a member of Mr. Zatko’s legal team.

“Instead, he came out with his whistleblower revelations to guarantee that the government gets the knowledge it needs to safeguard Twitter’s users, investors, and the country,” the article said.

Mr. Zatko was employed by Twitter in late 2020, when co-founder Jack Dorsey called him in following a high-profile breach by a teenager who circumvented the company’s security protocols. The attack was carried out by a teenager.

Since the 1980s, Mr. Zatko, better known by his alias “Mudge,” has been a prominent figure in the field of computer security research.

He was a member of a Boston cybersecurity collective that rose to notoriety in 1998 when it testified before the United States Senate and gave concerns about the condition of national cybersecurity.

The team working for Mr. Musk has suggested that the whistleblower claims might bolster their arguments that Twitter committed fraud by misrepresenting the status of its company and vital data about the people that are on its platform.

Twitter’s legal team responded by calling Mr. Zatko a disgruntled ex-employee with a grudge against the company and claiming that his baseless accusations following a failed tenure should not be included in the Delaware litigation. They described Mr. Zatko as having a “axe to grind.”

Additionally, it has been stated that Mr. Zatko’s involvement at the firm was not connected to the claimed undercounting of spam and bot accounts that Mr. Musk referenced in his counterclaims.

news source: msn