Source code leaks and ransomware attacks have become increasingly common over the past few years, with many companies falling victim to these cyber threats. Now, Twitter has found itself amidst another challenge, as a threat actor leaked pieces of its computer code online without permission. The threat actor named “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” shared excerpts of the company’s source code on the software collaboration platform GitHub, prompting Twitter to issue a subpoena to GitHub to identify the individual responsible for the leak.
While the ramifications of the Twitter leak are not clear, a DMCA takedown request shared by GitHub indicated that the leaked code contains “proprietary source code for Twitter’s platform and internal tools.” This suggests that the leak may have jeopardized the security of Twitter’s algorithmic systems and exposed sensitive information to potential cyber threats.
Musk making Twitter’s source code public
Despite the severity of the leak, Elon Musk, Twitter’s CEO, announced that the company will be making its code transparent and open source from March 31. Musk argues that this move will improve the quality of tweet recommendations and boost users’ confidence in the platform. However, this decision may also pose new security challenges for Twitter.
“People will discover many silly things, but we’ll patch issues as soon as they’re found! Providing code transparency will be incredibly embarrassing at first, but it should lead to rapid improvement in recommendation quality. Most importantly, we hope to earn your trust,” said Musk.
Ever since Musk took over Twitter last year, the company has faced numerous challenges, including a data breach affecting over 200 million users. This incident and the subsequent layoffs have raised concerns about Twitter’s security and reliability. While Musk’s commitment to transparency is a positive step, it remains unclear whether it will be enough to rebuild user trust and confidence in the platform’s ability to protect their privacy and data.
2023-03-27 15:09:32