>> i'm mudge. >> reporter: zatko is better known in the hacking world by his nickname, mudge. >> hisre in hacking, figuring out how computers and software work. >> reporter: that expertise may be why jack dorsey hired zatko after the company was hit by a massive attack in 2020 when hackers took over the accounts of some of the world's most famous people. >> he was one of the top five or six executives at the country. >> reporter: zatko is represented by the same attorneys that represented frances hogan. twitter is pushing back, saying zatko is pushing a narrative that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context. when we spoke to zatko and his lawyer, they said that the lawful whistle-blower disclosure process only allows them to talk about these issues in general terms. for specific allegations about twitter, they referred us to zatko's disclosure. >> i'm not going to go into details, but i will say that mudge stands by the disclosure and the allegations in there. >> reporter: cnn and the "washington post" obtained a copy of the disclosure from a seni

. >> mudge. >> reporter: zatko is better known in the hacking world by his nickname mudge. he's been a renowned cybersecurity expert for decades. >> his roots are in hacking, figuring out how computers and software work. >> reporter: that expertise might be why jack dorsey then ceo of twitter hired zatko after the company was hit by a massive attack in 2020, when hackers took over the accounts of some of the world's most famous people. >> mudge is one of the top fiber fix executives at the company. >> reporter: he's represented by john tye who founded whistle-blower aid, the same group that defended frances haugen. >> they're taking this seriously. >> reporter: twitter is pushing back, saying zatko is pedaling a narrative about our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context. when we spoke to zatko and his lawyer, they said the lawful whistle-blower disclosure process only allows them to talk about the issues in general terms. for specific allegations they referred us to zatko's disclosure. >> i won't

mudge was hired personally by jack dorsey after that 2020 hack.y the way, when joe biden was presidential candidate saw his account taken over. elon musk's account was taken over. so this guy, he doesn't know what he's talking about, i was with some people over the weekend, speaking to cyber security experts, people who really know what they're talking about, when we brought up mudge's name, they said if he's saying there's a there there, there's a there there. i will say one thing that twitter will fairly take issue with the disclosure, there's a lot of information to back off and make these claims. there's about 200 pages of exhibits. but there is still a lot in there that is zatko's assessment that he's not necessarily showing the receipts for but as i say, his name is a legendary status in the cyber security community. >> and i know you reached tout twitter with 50 specific questions on this for them to comment on the allegations he is making here. christine, i wonder what could the financial repercussions for something like this look like? >>

twitter�*s ceo had a nickname for him, "mudge".nior person, and he is alleging all sorts of things going on at twitter. the key one for me is bots. he is saying that twitter deliberately undercounts how many bots it has. now, elon musk is trying to buy the company, or at least he was. he then pulled out, saying that twitter had done just that, undercounted the bots. now you have someone inside, the former head of security, saying exactly that. there is a court case in october, where twitter are going to try and force elon musk to try and buy the company. this is brilliant news for elon musk. he has literallyjust tweeted an emoji of a cartoon person whistling. a clear this is devastating for twitter. they want to force elon musk to buy the company. these revelations will make that much, much more difficult. twitter has denied the allegations, and has accused mr zatko, known as "mudge", of opportunism. vivian schiller is twitter�*s former global chair of news. she gave me her reaction. first of all, i am kind of surprised they're goi

. >> mudge. >> reporter: zatko is better known in the hacking world by his nickname mudge. he's been a renowned cybersecurity expert for decades. >> his roots are in hacking, figuring out how computers and software work. >> reporter: that expertise might be why jack dorsey then ceo of twitter hired zatko after the company was hit by a massive attack in 2020, when hackers took over the accounts of some of the world's most famous people. >> mudge is one of the top fiber fix executives at the company. >> reporter: he's represented by john tye who founded whistle-blower aid, the same group that represented facebook whistle-blower frances haugen. >> they're taking this seriously. >> reporter: twitter is pushing back, saying zatko is pedaling a narrative about our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context. when we spoke to zatko and his lawyer, they said the lawful whistle-blower disclosure process only allows them to talk about the issues in general terms. for specific allegations they referred us to zat

most people call him mudge, a hacker handle of his from the 1980's. he ran cybersecurity grantmaking at darpa ended did special projects at google. way back in the day he was a member of a pioneer hyperspace called the loft -- hacker space called the left. he testified before congress telling them how insecure the internet was and now they can bring the whole thing in about a half an hour's work. this is why jack dorsey brought him into twitter after yet another long string of embarrassing hacks in 2020. kristen: so he brought him in, allegedly to take note of any flaws and call him out and help them fix it. but what happened? what did he notice and what did he do and what happened to him? >> well, he was given a lot of responsibility, but not the actual power. that's because according to the complaint, jack dorsey was pretty absent. even when he was present, he was not fully present. in the course of an entire year, per the complaint, dorsey said about 50 words to mudge, half a dozen phone calls, with a couple dozen text messages, and that is it. the

i don't think he had a great reputation you know mudge you don't look at mudge, his handle, dot mudgetwitter >> you're talking about zatko. >> yeah, he calls himself mudge. we have to take into account that once again, the accusations that there are just a massive number of bots flies in the face of everything that they do now, i know that musk says their work is shoddy in trying to get the bots out in working with them trying to figure out how many people hate me, i can tell their work is very rigorous, unfortunately, very rigorous. when you go and you look and you say, how many bots this, how many bots that when you have the police investigating and you're worried about bodyguards, they have very good systems and i do not think that the accusations have anything, any basis in fact. >> that's reflecting your own personal experience, right >> i mean, let's put it this way. when i'm threatened at that level, i do not stop with me i want to know whether mine is more bots and fewer bots and how closely do you monitor this. it's empirical, it's not anecdotal. >> the point of musk proving

mudge put out. lauren: he's mudge. >> yeah, i don't know.bly we'll see the whole thing because it'll be a court. i don't know if it'll be protected anymore. it'll be out there, which will be a good thing and we'll get to see. you know, again, i think you can't -- you know, whistle blowers are interesting kind of odd people just so you know. they have -- someone who's covered him for a long time, they have every incentive -- they have monetary incentives to push the envelope in terms of the truth. not saying he is because there's all these laws, whistle blower laws to make money and twitter says he's exaggerating and called him a disgruntled problematic. lauren: but his timing is impeccable. >> he used to work for twitter obviously. the thing is they're often right and if they fudged, if mudge caught them fudging, i am telling you that they -- jack, dick and the current gentleman's name. i can never say his name right without hearing it before saying it. they're in big trouble. i mean, they've committed, the company's committed securities for

he's a hacker who is known by the nickname mudge the contents of his written whistleblower complaint filed with federal agencies were confirmed to cnbc by zatko's legal team this morning. he says twitter misled the government about security and spam, violated an ftc settlement, running out of date software and withheld key facts about data breaches the company faced. too many employees, maybe thousands, had access not tracked well to the company's core software. that raises the prospect of disgruntled or malicious employees using the access for their own benefit or even if they're on a foreign government's payroll the complaint also says the company prioritized user growth over reducing spam and executives stood to make bonuses for themselves of as much as $10 million tied to increases in daily users, but not to decreases in spam. mudge was hired to twitter by jack dorsey but fired in january of this year a spokesperson for the senate intelligence committee tells cnbc that the committee has also received a copy of mudge's complaint and setting up a meeting with him as we speak the sp

what mudge says in the complaint that he found is that the company hadn't progressed much.t decree. and says particularly around issues like access controls which means which employees have access to key software that can keep the lights on he talked about how twitter was literally on the brink of collapse at one point in 2021. like they just didn't have -- they didn't organize their server farms properly there was one point they thought the lights were going to go out completely and the whole thing hanging by a thread. that was an issue then. you think about the implications for this. he talks about how twitter, you know, not only is susceptible to hacks but also citing a third party report he commissioned at the time of the company is susceptible, deeply, to foreign interference. so one of the issues that comes up in this question of twitter hacks and manipulation is if you can have these outside parties taking over accounts they can use it to manipulate public discourse and change the stomach -- stock price of companies and the outcome of elections. >> the timing is inte

he is a prominent hacker known online as mudge.at aired today, twitter needs to take these risks seriously and address them now. >> your whole perception of the world is made from what you are seeing, reading, and consuming online and if you don't have an understanding of what is real, what is not, yeah, i think this is pretty scary. >> are you nervous? >> yeah. this wasn't my first choice. yeah, i just want to make the world a better place, a safer place. the levers i have to do it through security information and privacy. >> the whistleblower to cnn. now, twitter's ceo is responding. in a letter to staff obtained by cnbc, he describes that letter as, a formeier this year ineffective leadership and poor performance. the ceo added,r we are reviexe that was terminated earlier this year for ineffective leadership and poor performance. the ceo added, we are reviewing the redacted claim that had been published, but what we have seen so far is a false narrative that is riddled with inconsistency and inaccuracies and presented without im

mudge here says they didn't even conduct the basics of cybersecurity. he said there were server vulnerabilities. employees computers were exposed. there was no mobile device management and insider threats were, quote, virtually unmonitored. he alleges misuse of mishandling personally identifiable information and making misrepresentations to the federal trade commission even worse for twitter, mudge here alleges certain instances of fraudard of directors. mudge portrays exsececutives misrepresenting he would conduct meetings prompting some to say he might be sick. this document is very good news for elon musk who's been making similar arguments about the presence of bots on the twitter system in his fight to cancel the purchase he backs musk almost every certain time musk is correct or musk's suspicions are on target they told cnbc this morning his team has subpoenaed subpoenme. >> eamon javers, thanks very much. >>> last year young adults used more marijuana and psychedelic drugs than ever before at least according to a new study from the national insti

mudge is an expert in computer security, going back almost 30 years.bufferer vulnerabilities, gained are prominence in the hacker community before using to the u.s. intelligence community. he was a senior position at darpa, led oh fernsive and defensive cyber operations research and ended up at google before twitter. this guy know what's he's talking about. >> martha: we have a flashback from the testimony on your screen now. he's worked for the government, recognized expert in this feel. here's a flashback from many years ago when he was on to the fact that there was a big security concern in all of this. >> if you have a person that is a pick pocket and they steal two cents from a person and on average they get one out of ever 1,000 people that goes by them they get two cents. they will starve in the real world. but in the internet community, this is viable. >> martha: now he has come forward and basically he's saying that twitter is not a secure place. he is suggesting that it's a national security risk the way that this business is run. can you exp

twitter's pushback is that this is what mudge is referring to. we have sourcing that says potentially there was another government agent, but we do not --t was the weakest part of the complaint because so much was redacted. >> twitter also says they fired pieter zatko for "ineffective leadership and poor performance" and called the timing of his allegations opportunistic. what other explanations are you getting from the company and hearing from employees? >> one of the things i have heard from a lot of employees is that despite mudge being a famous hacker, when he came into twitter he had this arrogant attitude where he acted like he knew things about subjects that were outside his expertise. one of the most interesting examples in the complaint, and that comes from our reporting as well, is related to this claim he makes that twitter is lying to elon musk about spam inbox. he says twitter is lying in the complaint. one of the things he says as he could not get a straight answer from anyone at twitter about the prevalence of spam on the platform.

guys >> julia, zatko, better known as mudge in the community, somewhat a celebrity.l, mudge plus musk twitter is saying they fired him for poor press conference. given how twitter has done over the past five years, ten years even, there are a lot of people they could have fired for poor press conference they have to substantiate that at this point, this guy, he knows what he's talking about. >> i mean, yes, i mean, this is really interesting here, jon, you make such a good point that mudge as he's called is an icon in the hacker community. he was hired as hackers sometimes are to oversee security but also there are all sorts of questions if you're overseeing security what your additional responsibilities are there in terms of managing people, et cetera i'm sure we'll get more information from twitter, but, you know, the question that's being raised here, you know, twitter is indicating it's a sour grapes situation, where mudge didn't like the way he was pushed out of the company. but so many he said/she saids here, and of course this all is in the leadup to the trial

kennedy: what is most concerning for you about this complaint from mudge?> if you look at what was put through, it's two parts. first he directly talks about the bot issue around twitter and directly looking at twitter direct statements calling them fabricated and a lie. peter is someone within the industry that has a lot of credibility. he's worked for department of defense, darpa, head of google, his background is one of the best in cybersecurity. he's known for being one of the top cybersecurity professionals and notably ethical throughout his entire career. coming from him, we take notice and look at this and say, okay, what's going on here? it looked like they were inflating the numbers that the alga rhythms they use to determine the bot numbers were also basically designed to show a lower percentage and that was well known throughout the leadership team. that's the first part and now you have all these security concerns and vulnerabilities within twitter that was explaining to peter, do not actually commune kit that to the board. hide the -- communica

. >> mudge as one of the top five or six executives at the company. >> zatko those represented by --leblower, aid the same company that represented facebook whistleblower -- >> we are in touch with whistleblower agencies, we are taking it seriously. >> twitter is pushing back, saying that zatko is pushing a narrative of -- that is riddled with -- and lacks important context. when we spoke to zak cohen's lawyer, he said that the lawful whistleblower disclosure process only allow them to talk about these issues in general terms. for specific allegations about twitter, they referred us to zatko disclosure. i'm >> not going to go into details, but i will say that mudge stands by the disclosure in the allegations in their. >> cnn the washington post obtained a copy of the disclosure from a senior democratic official on capitol hill. in it, zatko claims nearly half of twitters employees have access to some of the platforms made critical controls. >> there is an analogy of an airplane. so, you get on an airplane, and every passenger and the attendant crew all have access to the cockpit, to

about but they had a company wide call yesterday, this was on the agenda, they're pushing back on mudgeme. >> did he say why he it turned on the job -- a job in the federal government, which clearly is one that is needed given the government had its own issues of cybersecurity what was his thinking on that? >> that, he said, he thought about it and went back to the biden administration and said the work i'm doing here at twitter, he believes twitter plays such an important role in public discourse and democracy, he said i can do more work here. he ended up getting fired. >> and didn't end well there. >> fascinating he saw more of an impact there than being in the federal government and increasingly serious position. donie, fascinating update. we'll wait to see what happens in court and of course watch this testimony very closely. >> great work. >> thank you. >>> new overnight, teachers in columbus, ohio, reached a deal with the board of education to end a strike there, opening the door for students to return to the classroom monday. but school tensions heating up across the country. joh

we have him using mudge's latest miss i have. it's -- miss i.see some of this stuff. does twitter really want to see that in court if it's compelling stuff? lauren: they're trying to push the court date. >> i understand. that probably won't happen. my point is, you know, there's y want to to go forward and pay 15 billion? the judge might say, are listen -- lauren: you mean $15 billion? oh, i hadn't heard -- i'd say, no p he doesn't. >> yeah. t it's below the 44 billion, but it's still substantial. does he want to pay 15 billion, so there is a rationale. and then you throw on top of it does the judge want on responsible for selling the company to musk when he says he doesn't really want it. the whole thing's kind of a mess right now. but my guess, my -- i'm telling you, i'm many that $15 billion example that the judge whacks him, says you don't have to buy the whole thing. you, you don't, you don't get to back out of this totally. lauren: and that sends a message that you are the world's richest man and you're playing with people's money and real

twitter�*s ceo had a nickname for him, "mudge".nd he is alleging all sorts of things going on at twitter. the key one for me is bots. he is saying that twitter deliberately undercounts how many bots it has. now, elon musk is trying to buy the company, or at least he was. he then pulled out, saying that twitter had done just that, undercounted the bots. now you have someone inside, the former head of security, saying exactly that. there is a court case in october, where twitter are going to try and force elon musk to buy the company. this is brilliant news for elon musk. he has literallyjust tweeted an emoji of a cartoon person whistling. a clear indication of how elon musk thinks about this. this is clearly devastating for twitter. they want to force elon musk to buy the company. these revelations will make that much, much more difficult. we can now speak to the washington post'sjoseph menn, who was one of the reporters who broke the story about twitter�*s former security chief accusing the company of security and privacy vulnerabi

. >> reporter: explosive allegations from twitter whistleblower, inside this complaint peiter "mudge" zatco says there are extreme egregious deficiencies inside twitter for user privacy and digital security. he worked as twitter's head of security for two years before he was fired this past january. >> what he found inside this company was unlike anything he had seen elsewhere. >> reporter: john tye is zatco's attorney. does he still believe twitter users are still at risk? >> that's why he reluctantly decided to become a whistleblower, report details multiple respects that data and users are handled differently than twitter has said publicly. >> reporter: comes as the website is engaged in war with elon musk who pulled out of buying twitter over concerns of spambots on the cite. >> we never krcoordinatated wit his team. >> reporter: nikole killion, cbs news, washington. >>> why two atlanta officers won't face charges in shooting death of 27-year-old black man. >>> mysterious illness killing dozens of dogs in michigan. ♪♪ here goes nothing. hey greg. uhh...hello? it's me, your heart!

you know, his name is peter zacko but better known in the world of cyber as mudge.ny cybersecurity expert we spoke to, including people who advise folks up on capitol hill, everybody said if this guy is saying there's a problem, there is a problem. now, you can debate about whether he is exaggerating or whether he has the full scope of understanding on everything in twitter, and that is certainly what twitter is saying. twitter is saying even though we hired this guy as our chief security, as our head of security, that he didn't have the purview that he might be suggesting he had and he certainly is mischaracterizing but, you know, we put a lot of that to many experts. you know, very much his reputation is making people sit up and pay attention here. >> we know elon musk would like to hear from him as well in his ongoing lawsuit in pulling out of buying the company. >> absolutely. >> thank you so much for the bombshell reporting. thank you. >>> if you are one of the many americans bogged down by student loan debt, the white house is now leaning toward cancelllling n

. >> reporter: first a respected hacker known as mudge, he's filed an 84-page whistle-blower complaint, alleging the social media giant misled federal investigators. the complaint accuses twitter of violating a 2011 settlement with the federal trade commission by falsely claiming it had a solid security plan. it also alleges too many employees had access to sensitive user day ta, violatios of rules zatko speaking with cnn. >> large tech companies need to know what the risks are and need to have an appetite to go fix it >> reporter: twitter hired zatko after a high-profile hack. he was fired from his senior effective role for infeceffecti leadership >> twitter has become kind of the de facto town square >> reporter: the complaint comes amid twitter's legal battle with elon musk to's trywho's trying out of a deal to buy the company. the whistle-blower complaint alleges twitter's ceo tweeted false and misleading statements about the company's handling of bots >> this speaks to the misinformation and disinformation a lot of these spots and spam are used for commercial purposes but also by

. > >> peter mudge zapco says twitter has security issues with with your data. his claims were sent to numerous government agencies an congressional agencies in a big disclosure last month. twitter said he was fired in january for what they call poor performance. the company denies the allegations he made in his disclosure. upcog hearings will happen on the same same day that twitter shareholders are expected to take a vote on the potential takeover deal with elon musk. > >> new at 3:00, we will soon get docu ththgovent rts of the used to justify that search wart for former president donald trump's former home. elise presn has more. >> reporter: a federal judge in florida has ordered parts of the the affidavit used to authorize the search warrant for former president trump's mar-a-lago home be made public no later than noon on friday. judge bruce bruce ryanhart ruled redactions are necessary to protect the identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, and partiese redactions are masking the strategy, direction, scope, sources, and methods of the investigation

has refiled paperwork to terminate the agreement based on this report by the former hacker money as mudge. his real name turns out to be peter zico. musk says the allegations that he misled is extra reason for him not to close the deal to buy twitter. >>> we know this. the heatwave is coming and it's raising concerns that the unprecedented algae bloom could get worse. experts say algae is already becoming a bigger problem in the bay area as we continue to see thousands of dead fish wash ashore in places like lake merritt. here is nbc bay area's jodi hernandez. >> reporter: this is the scene folks up and down the san francisco bay have a been witnessing for the past two weeks as a harmful algae bloom has taken off. >> i'm extremely concerned for this. this is a completely unprecedented event that we've never seen before. none of the models even predicted that a bloom like this could take off throughout the bay and so rapidly. >> reporter: scientist ian wren with the san francisco bay keeper says the bay's current issue is the largest red algae bloom ever documented, and he fears the coming

inside this 84-page complaint obtained by cbs news, peiter "mudge" zatco says there are extreme egregiousinishes inside twitter when it comeses to user privacy, digital, and physical security. zatko worked as twitter's head of security for two years before he was fired this past january. company was unlike anything he'd seen elsewhere. >> reporter: john tye is zatko's attorney. does he still believe that twitter users are still at risk? >> absolutely. and that's why he reluctantly has decided t become a whistleblower. the complaint details multiple respects at which the data and individual users are handled differently than twitter has said publicly. >> reporter: this latest blow comes as the web site is engaged in a war with elon musk, who pulled out of buying twitter over concerns about the number of spam bots on the site. >> there was no coordination. we've never communicated with elon musk or his team. >> reporter: twitter said zatko was fired for poor performance and said the complaint was riddled with inaccuracies. nikole killion, cbs news, washington. >> o'donnell: still ahead, why

gabe gutierrez has our report >> reporter: first, a respected hacker, known as mudge, peter zatko was twitter's head of security until earlier this year. he's now filed an explosive 84-page whistle-blower complaint alleging the social media giant deceived federal regulators about egregious deficiencies in its security. >> he decided the risk was worth it he cared enough about the platform and the users that he was going to come forward. >> reporter: the complaint accuses twitter of violating a 2011 settlement with the federal trade commission by falsely claiming it had a solid security plan. it also alleges too many employees had access to sensitive user data, violations of sec rules and fraudulent misrepresentations in communications with the board of directors. zatko speaking with cnn. >> large tech companies need to know what the risks are and then they also need to have an appetite to go fix it >> reporter: twitter hired him after a high profile hack in 2020 that compromised prominent accounts the company now says zatko was fired for ineffective leadership and poor performance wha

the chief executive of twitter, parag agarwal, used to call him mudge.gs about twitter. now he's saying things about security that, for example, many twitter employees hold personal information about users that they shouldn't have. but the really damaging accusations here are about bots, because what he alleges is that twitter has far more fake accounts and spam accounts than it acknowledges. and he also says that bonuses are paid handsomely to undercount those fake accounts. why does that matter? because that is exactly what elon musk alleges he is trying what elon musk alleges. he is trying to pull out of buying twitter, $41; billion worth of the company, and he alleges that bots are much higher than twitter has publicly stated. now you have the former head of security saying exactly the same thing. that is hugely damaging for twitter. twitter, however, say that peiter zatko was fired from the company and that there are many inconsistencies with what he has alleged. but clearly what this will do is damage twitter. so a terrible day for them here in san

his lawyers have said they have already subpoenaed mudge for this kind of information, and if what hethis up, and considering his current ability, it would be surprising, he has alleged the way twitter management has been describing the number of bots on the platform has been misleading —— his credibility. i want to be careful. it is not untruthful, it isjust i want to be careful. it is not untruthful, it is just the way they've positioned the percent of account they are looking at, that less than 5% of the accounts are bots, is frankly, if you read the entire document, quite misleading and really plays into elon musk's hands. so it'll be quite an interesting set of hearings in september. interesting set of hearings in september-— interesting set of hearings in se tember. ., september. vivian schiller there, former head _ september. vivian schiller there, former head of _ september. vivian schiller there, former head of global— september. vivian schiller there, former head of global news - september. vivian schiller there, former head of global news at i former head of global news at

extraordinary situation where the former head of security is alleging all sorts of things about twitter —— mudgeny twitter employers have personal information about users that they should not have. the really damaging accusations here are about bots because what he alleges is that twitter has far more fake accounts and they allege. they also say that they are paid handsomely to undercount both fake accounts and why does that matter because that is exactly what elon musk is alleging. he is trying to pull out of the purchase of twitter and he alleges that bots are much higher than what twitter had stated and a have the former head of security saying the same thing. it is usually damaging for twitter. twitter say that peiter zatco was fired from the company and there are many inconsistencies with what he has alleged. clearly, what this will do is damage twitter. a terrible day for them in san francisco and an excellent one for elon musk. james clayton, bbc news. we will have some analysis of that in the business coverage beginning in under 20 that in the business coverage beginning in under20 minut

the whistleblower is twitter's former head of security, peter zatko, he is also a hacker known by mudge-- twitter new about those data breaches, and the plane also says the company prioritize user growth over reducing spam and executive stood to make bonuses themselves, $10 million tied to increases in daily unit -- users but not limiting spam. hired by jack dorsey in late 2020 but fired in late january of this year, in a statement to cnbc, a twitter spokesperson said this, he was fired from a senior executive role in twitter of january 2022 or ineffective leadership and corporate torments. what we have seen so far is a false narrative about twitter and our security data practices, inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important contacts.'s allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on twitter, it's customers and shareholders. in a separate interview aired on cnn, his team said he did not have contact with elon musk, who is in the battle with the acquisition over twitter, raising an interesting question of how closely elon musk will d

the software engineer, peiter zatko, who is better known by his hacker name "mudge," alleges twitterlead federal regulators about its cybersecurity defenses. on tuesday he spoke to cnn. [no audio] august 24, 1922, to working-class jewish immigrant parents in brooklyn. he died in 2010 at the age of 87 but his books continueo be read across the globe. at 18 years old, zinn began working as a shipyard worker and then joined the air force where he served as a bombardier in world war ii. after witnessing the horrors of war, howard zinn went on to become a lifelong dissident and peace activist. he was active in the civil rights movement and other struggles for social justice. he taught at spelman college in atlanta, the historically black college for women. he was fired for insubordination for standing up for student protesters. while at spelman, he served on the executive committee of sncc, the student nonviolent coordinating committee. after being forced out of spelman, zinn became a professor at boston university. in 1967 he published “vietnam: the logic of withdrawal.” it was the first

it was a special day for families as well as you can see at the 25th chris mudge pediatric picnic.each park in san rafael hasn't been held for two years because of the pandemic and it certainly was a highlight for kids and their families who have faced similar challenges like organ transplants. there was a dj food kayaking and even crafts for the kids. it's the opportunity to be normal. you know, there's no you yourself you can't tell. patients who's got a transplant who doesn't have a trust, but you can't a day to about everything else organizers say doctors and patients begin are able to see each other in real life and that gives so much. hope to everyone nice to see a great weather, you know cooperate for those kids and their families today. yeah. you notice a lot of sunshine out there. so it's beautiful to be outdoors. it's going to be another beautiful day tomorrow temperatures right now, lots of six seasons and a few upper 50s out there, nevada 57 oakland 64, san jose 65 and overnight. cool into the upper 50s to low 60s. we'll see them marine layer move in overnight, and then

. >> better known by his hacker handle mudge.a highly respected cyber security expert who first gained prominence back in the 1990's. he later worked in senior positions at the pentagon's defense. advanced research agency and google. he joined twitter at the urging of then ceo jack dorsey in late 2020 was fired in january. we will certainly continue our coverage on this story ahead at 9.45. tech kelso will be joining us with what this could mean for twitter. >> excited for that. also coming up tonight on kron, 4 news at 9, the fbi's sounding the alarm about the risk of being hit by ransomware. the industries. they say hackers are focused on right now. plus, a win for jazz lovers in san francisco. the agreement reached this week to keep popular jazz club in the city opened. but first, how one east bay city is dealing with a sudden spike in homicide cases. keep it here. kron. 4 news ats9. we'll be right news ats9. we'll be right back. i'm bringing back my spicy chicken strips. while i'm at it, my most popular former employee, mark

the story lines don't completely add up what mudge is alleging and what elon musk has been trying to say, but you know, he has ways of trying to connect dots. >> i mean, any dots that can be connected will be connected, right? we know that whether the judge is going to buy into that is a totally different story. as we head into the fall, guys, this is going to be another story line, a very juicy one for us to follow and markets to follow >> yeah, it's stunning, jon, to think about the range of issues he has to consider he just gave this talk in norway at this energy conference w basically talking about oil and gas exploration how it has to be maintained otherwise civilization in his words could crumble, and yet narrowing down to these extremely narrow legal machinations as he's in this box. you've got to give him credit for handling the big and the small. >> also good at time management. >> and he's managing to repopulate the earth at the same time, which he also sees as a threat to our continuing viability as a planet. so if it's not the energy stuff, it's not enough people he's wor

if you want to support people like mudge, go to whistle-blower8.org and you can help us help him. >> martha: thanks, john, very much. something that we all need to be concerned about. thanks for being here. keep in touch. join us again. that's "the story" for today, tuesday, august 23. thanks for being here. see you tomorrow. >> neil: is there a doctor in the house? actually today and here there are two. fox on top of docs making news. one is stepping down. don't tell anthony fauci and the other is ramping up. don't tell rochelle walensky that she's giving up. don't think the only floridians with presidential am becauses are named trump and desantis. meeting the miami republican mayor that says he's all in, too. he could bring more to the table than those other sunshine statens. and leon panetta on a scary warning for americans in ukraine. two words. get out. get ready. it's about to get very interesting. welcome, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. this is "your world." dr. fauci in a moment. first, to the fall-out from his announced resignation, peter doocy with the president in delaware.

whistleblower is a former head of security at twitter, and was previously a renowned hacker himself, known as "mudgen capitol hill are looking into pieter zatko's claims. among many other serious allegations, zatko says the company misled regulators about its ability and efforts to get rid of fake or spam accounts, a claim that could help elon musk who is trying to back out of a , deal to buy the company for $44 billion. with more, i'm joined by elizabeth dwoskin, silicon valley correspondent for "the washington post," who helped break this story. we've long talked about twitter's security problems over the years, but what zatko is alleging is deception of government regulators, the media, and users. can you boil down for us just a couple of the most egregious allegations and tell us why people should be concerned? elizabeth: these are explosive claims that could be incredibly imaging to twitter. you are right that they have had security issues over the years, security disaster, some would say. now we have this alleging that they were lying. they are huge allegations. he says too many employees had

>> the guy's name is peter zatko and goes by the nickname mudge. take it for what it's worth.s. he's making outrageous claims. if it's accurate, twitter faces more problems than the elon musk trauma. this is sec, enronesque stuff at large. he says he has evidence that twitter over the years has essentially fudged the numbers on how many bots that it has to sell ads. it's doing this essentially what musk is alleging, but he claims to be on the inside. if that is true, neil, we're talking a scandal that sun believable. if this is true and he has good evidence, this will be cut in half. it says that for years in public disclosures, twitter misled the investing public. that is securities fraud and could be criminal securities fraud. depending on the level of foreknowledge and intent that they can prove. again, you have to prove intent. twitter says this is all a bunch of baloney and this guy is a disgruntled employee. he's not given us any evidence just yet. he knows this goes on and he warned about it. if this is true, this is a huge story and we're going to be talking about this

i'm sure there are numerous companies lining up to hire mudge. alright well, we appreciate your perspective. andrew hay is the chief operating officer at larry's cybersecurity consulting firm. thank you for coming on. we appreciate it. well, now that dr anthony fauci has announced that he will retire at the end of the year. republicans vow to keep investigating him for his role in the pandemic if they take control of the house or senate next year. now fauci himself is responding as boxes, lauren blanchard tells us, the nation's top infectious disease expert says he has nothing to hide. dr anthony fauci says he hopes the us will be able to keep lowering the rate of covid infections, though he wants more americans boosted, he announced he will leave his post at the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases and as the president's chief medical advisor. retiring from government service. december. more than 50 years, and i just felt since i still had a lot of energy to do other things. i wanted to give myself that opportunity. but a number

he's a hacker known by the nick anymore mudge. he's been on the scene for decades.intly by "the washington post" an cnn. the contents of the whistle-blower complaint he filed with federal agencies were confirmed to cnbc by his legal team. you see they call it a chaotic and rudderless company, unable to protect millions of users including heads of state. that's what some of the big concern is. in the complaint, the poster board describes twitter as this rudderless company which is not paying close enough attention to the security concerns that he raised while he was the head of security there. he says twitter misled the government about security and spam, violated an ftc settlement, is running out-of-date servers and withheld key facts about the number of data breaches at the company. the key problem here is there are too many employees, maybe thousands with access to data that was not tracked inside the company. using that access for their own benefit. the post also reports that the claim says the company prioritized user growth over reducing spam. executives stood

>> enormous implications it is twitter's former chief of security, he's known by the hack name "mudgecomplaint were confirmed by his legal team. in that written whistle-blower complaint, he describes twitter as a chaotic, rudderless company, beset by infighting unable to present its 238 million daily users including government agencies and public figures. the complaint alleges that twitter violated terms of a settlement the key problem appears to be that too many employees inside twitter, thousands of them, had access that was not tracked well to this core company software. and it leads to tdisgruntled employees using it for their own access executives stood to make bonuses for themselves of as much as $10 million tied to increases in daily users. now mudge was hired at twitter by jack dorsey in late 2020 and was fired in january of this year and in a statement to cnbc this morning, a twitter spokesperson said mr. zatko was fired for ineffec ineffective leadership his opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on twitter and its shareholders in a separa

peter mudge zatko earlier this month alleged extreme egregious deficiencies by the social media companymeant that twitter had breached the terms of the merger agreement. and zatko's attorneys said he didn't make the disclosures to benefit either party of musk or twitter but instead to protect the american public and twitter shareholders now from one court to another. the u.s. open is officially underway

. >> reporter: first, a respected hacker, known as mudge, became twitter's head of security until earlierplosive 84-page whistleblower complaint, alleging the social media giant deceived federal regulators about egregious deficiencies in its security. >> he decided the risk was forth it. he cared enough about the platform that he was going to come forward. >> reporter: the complaint accuses twitter of violating a 2011 settlement with the federal trade commission by falsely claiming it had a solid security plan and that too many employees had access to sensitive user data, which is fraudulent misrepresentations in communications with the board of directors. >> large tech companies need to know what the risks are and they need to have an appetite to fix it. >> reporter: twitter hired zatko after a hack in 2020 that co-prom mized accounts. the company says he was fired for ineffective leadership and poor performance. >> twitter has become kind of the de facto town square. >> reporter: the complaint comes among twitter's legal battle with elon musk who is trying to get out of a $44 billion co

. >> reporter: first, a respected hacker known as mudge, peiter zatko became head of twitter securityl media giant deceived a federal regulator. >> he decided enough security, he cared enough about the platform that he was going to come forward. >> reporter: the complaint accuses twitter of violating a 2011 settlement by falsely claiming it has a faulty security plan. violations of s.e.c. rules and fraudulent misrepresentation in communications with the board of directors. zatko speaking with snan. >> large tech companies, you need to know what the risks are and they also need to have an appetite to fix it. >> reporter: twitter hired zatko after a high-profile hack in 2020 that compromised company accounts. the company said zatko was fired from his senior executive role for poor performance. what we've seen thus far is a false narrative riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies. >> twitter has become a de facto complaint. >> reporter: the complaint comes with the legal battle with elon musk who is trying to get out of a $44 billion platform arguing twitter has drastically underest