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Twitter employee spied on users for Saudi intelligence: Report
21 Oct 2018
Saudi Arabia co-opted a Twitter employee to spy on dozens of users from within the company, a New York Times report citing multiple sources has revealed.
The employee, Ali Alzabarah, joined Twitter in 2013 and was groomed by the Saudi intelligence to peer into accounts of dissidents and others.
Twitter came to know about the activity in late 2015 and fired him.
Here's more.
Engineer co-opted to target political opposition
Motive
During his two years at Twitter, Alzabarah had risen through the ranks to hold an engineering position, which provided him access to user account data, including personal information, account activity, phone numbers, and IP addresses.
The Saudis used this as an opportunity and groomed Alzabarah to spy on dissidents and other targets that either fostered activism or may have been critical to the regime.
No evidence of handing over data
Twitter's action
In late 2015, Western officials informed Twitter of the connection between Alzabarah and the Saudis, prompting the company to launch an investigation.
The company, as NYT sources claimed, assessed the information Alzabarah might have accessed.
Though it couldn't find any evidence of handing over data, the engineer was fired the same month. He went back to Saudi Arabia shortly after that.
Whose accounts were accessed?
Accounts accessed
Twitter didn't find any evidence of handing over data, but it did discover that Alzabarah accessed multiple accounts, including those of policy academicians, journalists, privacy and security researchers, and surveillance specialists.
Many of them were connected to the Tor project, which helps activists maintain privacy and circumvent firewalls and repress government surveillance.
The company even sent emails alerting the users of the state-sponsored act.
Something similar happened at Facebook too
Fact
Though Twitter's case revolves around politics, it is worth noting this isn't the first time an employee has used his position for the wrong reasons. To recall, just a few months back, Facebook fired an engineer who abused his position to stalk women.
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