The departure of key security staff members has made Twitter more susceptible to fraud and privacy violations thanks to Elon Musk’s management of the platform.
The purchase of Twitter for $44 billion has raised questions about whether the service has become a an increasingly dangerous place for scams and the theft of personal information.
In addition to Lea Kissner and Damien Kieran, who both resigned as chief information security and chief privacy officers, a number of individuals working on security and related teams also left the social media platform.
In an attempt to increase the reliability of information on the platform, the service has relied on its blue-checkmark verification system for years. However, impersonations and hoaxes spread after Musk attempted to overhaul the system.
Twitter is also being scrutinized by lawmakers and the Federal Trade Commission, which has a longstanding agreement with Twitter to ensure privacy protections.
Ian Brown, a former senior engineering manager at Twitter says the lack of a fully staffed security team could lead to the site not functioning properly or users losing control of their accounts.
“There are security vulnerabilities happening all the time,” says Brown
A former Twitter employee was found guilty of spying on Saudi Arabian dissidents and passing their personal information to the Saudi government in August.
A former FBI official, said he feared Twitter now has less capacity to catch such a person.
“You’re losing eyes on the interior, making sure that new employees are vetted appropriately,” he said.
Twitter keeps massive amounts of personal information, including email addresses, passwords and data stored in its direct-message inboxes.
