Quite recently, portions of Twitter’s source code were leaked online on Github. This incident has caused significant embarrassment for the company’s new owner. Court filings indicate that Twitter claimed copyright infringement and requested that the code be taken down from Github. The code was removed on the same day, but details regarding how long it had been available online were not disclosed. Twitter also requested the US District Court to order Github to reveal the identity of the user who posted the code and those who accessed and downloaded it. That request is now a subpoena: the US District Court for the Northern District of California has issued a subpoena to Github demanding that it identify GitHub user “FreeSpeech Enthusiast,” along with any “name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), email address(es), social media profile data, and IP address(es)” associated with the user.
A data leak of any sort is quite serious for an organization because it represents a failure to protect sensitive information and maintain the trust of stakeholders. Furthermore, Twitter being one of the most active social media platforms in the world, it becomes increasingly important to secure the credentials and data of tons of users. It highlights a lack of proper security protocols and can have serious consequences for the organization’s financial and reputational well-being. This step by Twitter will ensure that any future threats are at least subdued since taking absolutely no action in a source code leak such as this can solidify the company’s image in a bad light not only for stakeholders but also for its user base.
Sources within Twitter suspect that a disgruntled former employee may be behind the leak, and the company hopes that the information provided by Github will help them determine if the source code was posted by one of the thousands of workers laid off following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company last year. The deadline to produce the data of the suspect is April 3.
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(Via)
