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☆ Elon Musk should be forced to testify on X’s ‘chaotic environment,’ US regulator tells court
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington CNN —Elon Musk should be forced to testify in an expansive US government probe of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, the US government said. The government said mass layoffs and other decisions Musk made raised questions about X’s ability to comply with the law and to protect users’ privacy. Other planned upgrades to the company’s security program were “impaired,” the filing said, citing a deposition by the former chief information security officer, Lea Kissner. In another example, Musk personally tried to rush the rollout of Twitter Blue, the company’s paid subscription service, the filing said. But in its filing, the US government said its interest in Musk’s testimony is well-justified based on the appearance of a “chaotic environment” at X driven by “sudden, radical changes at the company” following Musk’s acquisition.

Persons: Washington CNN — Elon, Musk, Musk’s, didn’t, Lea Kissner, Damien Kieran, —, ”, Peiter “ Mudge ” Zatko Organizations: Washington CNN, Twitter, Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, X, FTC, X Corp, CNN, Washington Post Locations: House

☆ Twitter’s new encrypted message feature criticized by security and privacy experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

In addition, encrypted messages may only be sent between two individuals, not groups. Both participants must either have exchanged direct messages in the past, or the recipient of an encrypted message must already follow the sender. Twitter’s former chief information security officer, Lea Kissner, publicly pleaded with Twitter’s current engineering team to improve the feature quickly. And it announced that its goal is to provide a similar level of protection as other privacy-preserving apps that come highly recommended by security experts, such as Signal. The lack of so-called end-to-end encryption makes Twitter’s implementation largely meaningless, security experts said.

Companies Twitter Inc FollowAlphabet Inc Follow(Reuters) - Damien Kieran, who resigned as Twitter (TWTR.MX) Inc's chief privacy officer in November after Elon Musk took over the social media giant, has joined photo sharing app-maker BeReal as its top lawyer. Kieran started Monday as general counsel at Paris-based BeReal, he said in posts on LinkedIn and Twitter. Kieran and BeReal, whose popular social media app prompts users to share a daily photo, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In addition to his role as chief privacy officer, Kieran was also vice president and deputy general counsel at Twitter before leaving in November, according to his LinkedIn account. Other top lawyers, including deputy general counsel James Baker, have also been fired or resigned.

☆ A Twitter executive who left the company when Elon Musk took over has returned to lead its trust and safety team, reports say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter has appointed Ella Irwin as its new head of trust and safety, The Information reported. Irwin had previously left Twitter in the first days of Musk's tenure but has now returned, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg reported that Irwin had previously left Twitter during the initial days of Musk's tenure, but was asked to return amid surging resignations. Irwin and Twitter did not respond to Insider's request for comment about her appointment to the position. Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, resigned on November 10.

San Francisco-based Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the security situation at the company. He echoed a pessimistic view among some Twitter users this week: The service might go down entirely under Musk's ownership. Verification serviceOn Friday, Twitter paused the rollout of its Twitter Blue verification service, intended to let users pay $8 a month for a verification badge. “The debacle with the Twitter verification is a really strong indicator as to what can go wrong,” Roger said. “When the verified Twitter users got hacked a few months ago, it was only a bitcoin scam, right?” Rogers said.

☆ The Federal Trade Commission says it is tracking Elon Musk's Twitter 'with deep concern' as top privacy execs quit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The FTC said it's tracking developments at Twitter "with deep concern," per Reuters. It made the comment after four top execs in charge of privacy at Twitter reportedly resigned. Elon Musk said on Thursday that he and his team would fully comply with FTC rules. Twitter has also fired half of its global workforce, roughly 3,700 people, alongside several other tech giants that conducted mass layoffs. Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty also resigned, according to Reuters, citing a Slack message among Twitter's staff posted by an internal lawyer.

☆ How the same mistake led to thousands of layoffs across the Tech industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tech CEOs all made the same dumb mistake, and it's cost thousands of jobs. In his first remarks to Twitter employees, Musk said that the service's success is far from guaranteed and that bankruptcy is an option. Meta insiders say they have little to no visibility into who, exactly, got let go in the culling of 11,000 jobs. Shopping on social media is the wave of the future; just ask Elon Musk. Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it was watching Twitter with "deep concern" after these three privacy and compliance officers quit. Twitter did not respond to requests for comment on a potential bankruptcy, the FTC warning, or the departures. Wheeler was the face of Twitter for advertising after Musk took over. Musk has saddled Twitter with $13 billion in debt, on which it faces interest payments totaling close to $1.2 billion in the next 12 months. It joined other brands including General Motors (GM.N) that have paused advertising on Twitter since Musk took over, concerned that he will loosen content moderation rules.

Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty have also resigned, according to an internal message seen by Reuters. He announced plans to cut half its workforce last week, promised to stop fake accounts and is charging $8 a month for the Twitter Blue service that will include a blue check verification. "We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern," Douglas Farrar, the FTC's director of public affairs, told Reuters. "Elon puts rockets into space, he's not afraid of the FTC," the attorney quoted Spiro as saying. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on the FTC warning, the note from the attorney or the departures.

Twitter’s chief information security officer and chief compliance officer resigned late Wednesday night as the company started implementing changes that would allow users to more easily impersonate major brands and government officials. The departures came just hours before the company’s new CEO, Elon Musk, sent his first email to Twitter employees, titled “difficult times ahead,” and implementing a mandatory return-to-work policy. Lea Kissner, the chief information security officer, confirmed they had left in a Twitter post Thursday morning. Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty has also left the company, according to a person familiar with the situation who asked to remain nameless because they were not authorized to speak publicly. A spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission said in an emailed statement that it is keeping watch on the situation.

☆ Twitter information security chief Kissner to leave
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 10 (Reuters) - Twitter Inc's information security chief Lea Kissner is leaving the company, Kissner said in a tweet on Thursday. loadingKissner joined Twitter last year as head of privacy engineering and was made the chief information security officer in January. He then moved quickly to push out some top executives including Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and announced layoffs affecting about half of Twitter's workforce. Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty have also put down their papers, the Verge reported earlier on Thursday, citing sources and messages on Twitter's internal channels. Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Shounak DasguptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Twitter’s cybersecurity chief quits amid company turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“I’ve made the hard decision to leave Twitter,” Kissner tweeted. Their resignation was the latest example of the internal turmoil that has rocked Twitter following mass layoffs at the company. It could even put Twitter’s own employees in legal jeopardy, the message suggested, after the employee claimed Musk was unconcerned about Twitter’s potential liability before the FTC. The message outlined plans at Twitter to devolve FTC compliance responsibilities to the individual workers remaining at the company. “This will put huge amount of personal, professional and legal risk onto engineers,” the message warned, according to The Verge.

In his first companywide email to Twitter employees, new owner and CEO Elon Musk said he was ending the social network's "work from home forever" policy. He also warned employees that the company might not survive the economic downturn without significant subscription revenue. From: Elon Musk [email removed] Date: Nov 9, 2022 [time stamp removed] To: Team Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company but there is no way to sugarcoat the message. We are also changing Twitter policy such that remote work is no longer allowed unless you have a specific exception. Thanks, ElonWATCH: Twitter is now Elon Musk's company — Here's how experts responded to the news

An image of new Twitter owner Elon Musk is seen surrounded by Twitter logos in this photo illustration in Warsaw, Poland on 08 November, 2022. "We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern," an FTC spokesperson said in a statement. Since then, other executives have announced their departures, including most recently Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner. According to internal communications obtained by CNBC, three execs involved in information security, privacy and compliance all resigned in recent days, including Kissner. Under that order, Twitter agreed to install an enhanced privacy program and information security program with specific requirements.

☆ Analysis: Elon Musk's Twitter faces its 'Titanic' moment as executives and advertisers flee while trolls run rampant
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

It’s hard to succinctly summarize the absolute chaos that has consumed Twitter over the last 12 hours as Elon Musk continues to wreak havoc on the Silicon Valley company. Bloomberg reported that its advertising chief Robin Wheeler was on the way out. And earlier in the day, we learned that Twitter’s chief information security officer Lea Kissner resigned, as had chief privacy officer Damien Kieran. And given that Twitter heavily relies on advertising revenue, the developments spell exceptionally troubling news for the already-imperiled company. We would once again tell advertisers to jump ship, but at this point, no CMO in their right mind needs that advice.”

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