Status: 03/27/2023 05:18 am
Twitter’s series of glitches continues. Parts of the source code of the social media platform have been leaked to the public. This is evident from court documents. The software code could have been online for two months.
As a result of an unusually serious data leak, parts of Twitter’s software code have been openly visible on the Internet. The short message service now requires information about the person or persons allegedly responsible for the publication. That’s according to court documents from the weekend. Twitter also requested data from Microsoft’s own programming platform Github on all users who might have seen or downloaded the computer code there.
How long was the source code online?
Twitter also launched an internal investigation, as the New York Times reported overnight, citing unnamed sources. One concern is that the program code may contain undiscovered vulnerabilities that attackers could find and exploit to access data or sabotage the platform.
Twitter managers only recently found out about the leak, the New York Times said. That would mean that the software code could have been online at Github for a good two months.
Because the account that published the data according to Twitter had only uploaded something there once, according to data from the platform – on January 3rd. The extent of the leak is initially unknown. The company said it removed the code on Friday at Twitter’s request.
Who is responsible?
Such basic program codes are among the well-kept secrets of an online platform. Twitter asserted copyrights to get the data removed from the web. At the same time, Twitter owner Elon Musk wants to make the algorithm public at the end of March, which selects tweets for individual users if they are sorted by the software and not displayed in chronological order.
Twitter is suspected of being behind the leak by someone who worked on Twitter until last year, wrote the New York Times. For billionaire Musk, the data leak means further challenges. He bought Twitter in October and has since laid off half of the approximately 7,000 employees.
Musk puts the value of Twitter at $20 billion
Tech entrepreneur Musk has put Twitter’s current value at $20 billion – less than half of the $44 billion he paid six months ago when he took over the short message service. In an internal e-mail quoted by the US media, the entrepreneur describes the company’s loss in value and explains that the communication platform had such great financial difficulties that it was temporarily on the verge of bankruptcy.
The email was about a new share-based compensation program for employees. Musk expressed the expectation that the company could return to profitability in the second quarter as advertisers returned. He sees a “clear but difficult path” ahead of Twitter, on which the company’s value could rise to $250 billion. Musk did not say when this could happen.