IT security expert Peiter Zatko, also known by his hacker pseudonym “Mudge”, started a new job on Monday as head of security at Twitter. According to a report from Reuters news agency, Zatko reports directly to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Following a 45 – to 60 – day review phase should the 49 – responsibility for central Take over the security functions of the social media platform.

Unconventional security approaches Compared to Reuters, Zatko specified his future field of work: Among other things, he was responsible for the information and physical security of the social media platform as well as for its further development from a security perspective.

He highlighted an important area of ​​responsibility also the integrity of the platform in terms of abuse and manipulation. In particular, he wants to work on improving public discussions on Twitter: He welcomes current tests of a function that should encourage users to read an article before they retweet it (en masse). The next step could be to “force” people to understand longer Twitter discussions before they can participate.

Furthermore, the IT security expert emphasized that he was Twitter’s openness for unconventional security approaches – for example for his suggestion to confuse tweeting villains by showing them manipulated information about the interactions of other users with their posts. His new employer is (in a positive sense) “willing to take some risks”.

Impressive history “Mudge” Zatko has already demonstrated a knack for creative and pioneering solutions in the past. 1995 he published one of the first whitepapers on the phenomenon of buffer overflows and the resulting security risks. He was part of the hacker think tank “L0pht” and the hacker organization and do-it-yourself community Cult of the Dead Cow. In addition to the “L0phtCrack” tool, Mudge also wrote the “AntiSniff” and “L0pht-Watch” tools. 1998 he impressed the US Senate by claiming that he could use the internet in 30 Paralyze minutes.

Mudge’s explanations on a denial-of-service attack on the Internet (from 15: 24 in the video, back then with a slightly different hairstyle) are a classic today.

From 1998 the hacker worked for the official research – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) development division. 2013 Mudge switched to Google; Most recently he worked for the online payment service Stripe. 2016 he received an award for his (previous) life’s work as part of the “Pwnie Awards” at the Black Hat USA security conference. Now new challenges are waiting for him.

(ovw)