Twitter whistleblower claims company had 'extreme, egregious' security problems

Twitter executives attempted to deceive regulators about major security problems that make users' personal information vulnerable to hackers, according to a new whistleblower complaint.

The complaint, filed by the former Twitter head of security Peiter Zatko, alleges that Twitter had "extreme, egregious deficiencies" in its security practices and failed to take sufficient measures to protect its hundreds of millions of users.

Zatko's most serious accusations include that Twitter violated its settlement with the Federal Trade Commission when it falsely claimed it had a security plan, according to a copy of the complaint acquired by the Washington Post. The former security head claims the company's servers relied on older and more vulnerable software and that executives withheld information from Twitter's board of directors about the vulnerabilities and attempted to present them with irrelevant information.