DOJ charges two ex-Twitter employees, arresting one, with spying for Saudi Arabia by snooping on kingdom critics; one allegedly accessed 6,000 accounts in 2015
but spying on private citizens by gaining access to their social media account information, if proven true, is illegal and completely unacceptable. https://twitter.com/... Molly McKew / @mollymckew : Many things about this story should trouble you — but overall it should remind you that social media is the greatest intelligence collection tool there is. https://www.cnn.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : 1) This is a huge deal. 2) Lots of tech employees have access to data and families back home. 3) All big tech companies need internal monitoring and hunting teams. 4) KSA wouldn't be at the top of my list of high-risk countries with lots of citizens in SV. There will be more. https://twitter.com/... Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / @lorenzofb : Judging from when it happened, this case is likely connected to this: https://motherboard.vice.com/ ... Natasha Fatah / @natashafatah : #BREAKING Ahmad Abouammo, arrested, is a US citizen Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi National They allegedly accessed private information of thousands of accounts for the Saudis; were rewarded with tens of thousands of dollars funneled into secret bank accounts https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Drew Olanoff / @yoda : I'm gonna bet this happens at so many companies at a clip we'll never be able to keep up with and it's terrifying. https://twitter.com/... Adam Steinbaugh / @adamsteinbaugh : cc: people who think social media companies should require users to provide their real identities https://twitter.com/... @amy_siskind : “A complaint unsealed in U.S.District Court in San Francisco detailed a coordinated effort by Saudi government officials to recruit employees at the social media giant to look up the private data of thousands of Twitter accounts.” https://apnews.com/... Generic Soy Milk / @emilygorcenski : I just gave a talk at @oredev about how our platforms are killing people and perhaps I added a layer of indirection that I needn't have https://twitter.com/... Ali A. Rizvi / @aliamjadrizvi : This just broke: https://www.nytimes.com/... Not saying it's related, but we've had several Saudi refugees and dissidents on our @SecularJihadist show. The account was suspended, appeal rejected, and then strangely restored just hours later. @ArminNavabi Sunjeev Bery / @sunjeevbery : 1. The Saudi dictatorship reportedly infiltrated Twitter to get data on its critics. 2. The head of the Saudi dictator MBS's charity @MiskKSA @MiskGlobalForum was the point of contact for Saudi spies at @Twitter. 3. FYI: The @UN has partnered with Misk. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Veli-Pekka Kivimki / @vpkivimaki : Counterintelligence 2.0... when the insider threat is in an external company that has your digital life in its servers. https://twitter.com/... David Carroll / @profcarroll : We had heard there were moles inside Twitter for KSA. Two former employees have now been charged. The trust crisis in big tech gets worse by the day. https://www.nytimes.com/... Johana Bhuiyan / @jmbooyah : This is something that came up a few times in my convos with current and former Google employees: What about the allegations against David Drummond? https://www.cnbc.com/... Steve Kovach / @stevekovach : Drummond also just sold $27 million worth of GOOGL stock https://www.cnbc.com/... Mastodon / @mastodonproject : We won't spy on you for the Saudi royal family, that's the Mastodon guarantee™️ https://twitter.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : Something I've said to security audiences: “We are all pretty good at technical infosec defense; the big tech companies are at least in the same league as state attackers. We are children when it comes to human intelligence.” Jeremy Tregunna / @jtregunna : Periodic reminder that all it takes is to compromise a single individual, or a small handfull of people within an organization to undermine the safety and security of their users. https://twitter.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : Not clear in this story: - What were these guys' job titles? - Did an employee accessing 6,000 Twitter accounts set off any internal alarms? https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
WHOA: Two former Twitter employees have been charged by the DOJ with spying for Saudi Arabia by digging into critics of the royal family. One is accused of accessing personal info of more than 6,000 Twitter accounts in 2015 on behalf of Saudi Arabia. https://www.washingtonpost.co…
One lesson from the Saudi spies who worked for Twitter; tech companies need to get way better at building walls and limiting which employees have access to what. https://www.wired.com/...
“We tracked him and found that 12 days ago he signed in once without encryption from...” a Saudi official wrote about a target using the info provided by the Twitter employees. https://slate.com/...
“Alzabarah was placed on administrative leave, his work-owned laptop was seized, and he was escorted out of the office. The next day, he flew to Saudi Arabia and has not returned to the U.S.” Guy accessed personal info of 6,000 users for Saudi government. https://apnews.com/...
Since Jamal Khashoggi's murder. my team's work was mostly focused on Jamal's vision, which was to reclaim the Arab public sphere. It just happens that the Arab public sphere was... Twitter. Here's a quick thread: https://twitter.com/...
This is highly significant. Two Twitter employees were arrested by the DOJ for supplying private information to the ‘bone saw crew’ in the Saudi gov't about dissidents which put their lives in danger. The US should throw the book at these creeps. No mercy. https://www.washingtonp…
Twitter's Europe, Middle East, and Africa HQ is in Dublin. Ireland is a critical node in the global network for information and cyber dominance. Our state will be contested space for powerful actors in the future of warfare, and it's entirely undefended. https://twitter.com/...
One of the toughest security problems for the big tech companies is having moles of foreign intelligence agencies planted to work in your organization. https://twitter.com/...
When interviewed by an FBI agent in his home in October 2018, Abouammo allegedly created a fake invoice for $100,00 using his personal computer in an adjoining room, and then emailed the undated document to the FBI
The Saudis have made dozens of big, important and positive economic and social reforms in recent years — but spying on private citizens by gaining access to their social media account information, if proven true, is illegal and completely unacceptable. https://twitter.com/...
Many things about this story should trouble you — but overall it should remind you that social media is the greatest intelligence collection tool there is. https://www.cnn.com/...
1) This is a huge deal. 2) Lots of tech employees have access to data and families back home. 3) All big tech companies need internal monitoring and hunting teams. 4) KSA wouldn't be at the top of my list of high-risk countries with lots of citizens in SV. There will be more. htt…
#BREAKING Ahmad Abouammo, arrested, is a US citizen Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi National They allegedly accessed private information of thousands of accounts for the Saudis; were rewarded with tens of thousands of dollars funneled into secret bank accounts https://www.theguardian.com/…
“A complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco detailed a coordinated effort by Saudi government officials to recruit employees at the social media giant to look up the private data of thousands of Twitter accounts.” https://apnews.com/...
I just gave a talk at @oredev about how our platforms are killing people and perhaps I added a layer of indirection that I needn't have https://twitter.com/...
This just broke: https://www.nytimes.com/... Not saying it's related, but we've had several Saudi refugees and dissidents on our @SecularJihadist show. The account was suspended, appeal rejected, and then strangely restored just hours later. @ArminNavabi
1. The Saudi dictatorship reportedly infiltrated Twitter to get data on its critics. 2. The head of the Saudi dictator MBS's charity @MiskKSA @MiskGlobalForum was the point of contact for Saudi spies at @Twitter. 3. FYI: The @UN has partnered with Misk. https://www.washingtonpost…
We had heard there were moles inside Twitter for KSA. Two former employees have now been charged. The trust crisis in big tech gets worse by the day. https://www.nytimes.com/...
This is something that came up a few times in my convos with current and former Google employees: What about the allegations against David Drummond? https://www.cnbc.com/...
Something I've said to security audiences: “We are all pretty good at technical infosec defense; the big tech companies are at least in the same league as state attackers. We are children when it comes to human intelligence.”
Periodic reminder that all it takes is to compromise a single individual, or a small handfull of people within an organization to undermine the safety and security of their users. https://twitter.com/...
Not clear in this story: - What were these guys' job titles? - Did an employee accessing 6,000 Twitter accounts set off any internal alarms? https://twitter.com/...