Former colleagues of Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former cybersecurity chief who blew the whistle on the social media company for allegedly lax enforcement of data privacy rules, say they were offered pay in exchange of information harmful to him, according to published reports.
Technology employees at Zatko’s previous stops, including Stripe, Google and the Pentagon, said their inboxes and LinkedIn accounts have been flooded with messages from so-called research and consulting companies seeking information that could influence a possible acquisition of Twitter by the CEO of Tesla. Elon Musk, The New Yorker reported Tuesday.
Research and advisory firms collect information about clients who then use the data to plan strategy regarding potential investments.
“I’m working on a project related to technology leadership and my client is hoping to speak with an experienced professional about a particular individual you may have worked with,” read a message sent to Marty Wasserman, a Stripe employee. , in August. 23.
Another Stripe employee, Dan Foster, told colleagues, “I’m getting inundated with paid interview requests.”
The two men were invited to a “45-60 minute compensated telephone consultation.”
The messages were sent after Zatko went public with his allegations against Twitter last month.
“Preeeettyy sure this has something to do with Mudge,” Wasserman wrote to Stripe colleagues in the internal Slack channel.
“Difficult pass.”
According to The New Yorker, Wasserman was asked by an associate at AlphaSights about information that could shed light on Zatko’s “personality, leadership, style, credentials and history.”
“We compensate well because we know this is a difficult and confusing question to begin with,” he reportedly wrote to Wasserman.
Jaclyn Schoof, another Stripe employee, reported receiving the same offer from AlphaSights, a London-based information services company.
“They said they didn’t care how much it would cost them… it seems really weird,” she wrote to colleagues.
Wasserman told The New Yorker that he was concerned “that multiple different sources, multiple different people, multiple different companies, were all basically trying to dig up dirt on Mudge, all seemingly at the same time.” .
“My family and I are concerned by what appears to be a campaign to approach our friends and former colleagues under seemingly false pretenses with offers of money in exchange for information about us,” Zatko told The New Yorker. .
“Those tactics should be down to whoever is behind them.”
The New Yorker reported that none of the Stripe employees approached refused to accept the payment because they “wanted to protect his credibility.”
Musk has cited Zatko’s allegations against Twitter as a legal reason to back out of his $44 billion commitment to buy the social media company and take it private.
Twitter shareholders approved the acquisition on Tuesday.
Twitter has sued Musk in Delaware in an attempt to enforce the deal. The trial is scheduled to begin next month.
On Twitter, Musk wondered which companies were looking for dirt on Zatko.
“Does anyone know who the secret customers are? Let’s get them out on Twitter rn haha,” Musk said on Twitter.
In testimony before Congress on Tuesday, Zatko said Twitter had hired a Chinese undercover agent and that the site posed a national security threat.
He said Twitter did not know the suspected Chinese agent was on its payroll until the company was contacted by the FBI.
A Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to The Post: “Today’s hearing only confirms that Mr. Zatko’s claims are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies.”
