Management & Strategy

Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko Named Head of Security at Twitter

Social media giant Twitter has appointed security expert Peiter Zatko as its head of security.

November 17, 2020

Social media giant Twitter has appointed security expert Peiter Zatko as its head of security.

Better known under his hacker name “Mudge,” Zatko is an expert in network security, an open-source programmer, and a writer, and was the most prominent member of the high-profile hacker group L0pht.

On Monday, shortly after Reuters broke the news, Zatko confirmed on Twitter that he has joined the social media platform’s executive team.

Previously, Zatko handled security at Stripe. Before that, he worked at Google and the Defense Advanced Research and Projects Agency (DARPA). His career in computer security, however, started in the 1990s.

The news comes roughly a month and a half after Twitter appointed Rinki Sethi as chief information security officer (CISO). Over the past couple of years, the platform went through three CISOs.

The new appointment underlines Twitter’s focus on improving its security posture following the significant data breach that resulted in the takeover of multiple high-profile accounts in July 2020.

Written By Ionut Arghire

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

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