11–20 of 57 posts
> Ali Alzabarah, another former Twitter employee who was also charged in the scheme, fled the country before he could be arrested Apparently “Alzabarah [is] believed to be in Saudi Arabia” [1]. What the fuck?! Sooner we can decouple from that regime the better in my book. [1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-former-twitter-employees-...
Why would a high suit shmoozing media partnership manager have access to user info? Seems like an issue of data access at Twitter.
Access controls are just not a priority while blitz scaling and then very difficult to patch on after the fact.
Odd that the defendant used a federal public defender instead of a private attorney and the lack of a plea deal here (in exchange for cooperation?)
He fled the country probably had no reason plans of defending himself.
We don’t convict in absentia. This is the one who got left behind.
> Ali Alzabarah, another former Twitter employee who was also charged in the scheme, fled the country before he could be arrested Apparently “Alzabarah [is] believed to be in Saudi Arabia” [1]. What the fuck?! Sooner we can decouple from that regime the better in my book. [1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-former-twitter-employees-...
https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/07/28/mbs-despot-in-the-...
> Ali Alzabarah, another former Twitter employee who was also charged in the scheme, fled the country before he could be arrested Apparently “Alzabarah [is] believed to be in Saudi Arabia” [1]. What the fuck?! Sooner we can decouple from that regime the better in my book. [1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-former-twitter-employees-...
how did they try him in absentia? I'm pretty certain that's illegal in the united states.
They didn’t.
“Abouammo was arrested in Seattle, Washington, on Nov. 5, 2019, and made his initial federal court appearance in Seattle at 2:00 p.m.on Nov. 6, 2019” [1]. He is the one they left behind.
[1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-former-twitter-employees-...
> When the conversation concluded, management seized Alzabarah’s laptop, put him on administrative leave, and escorted him out of the building.
> At 5:17 p.m. he called a handler, identified as Associate-1 in the FBI complaint, who arrived in a white SUV two hours later. Driving around Alzabarah’s neighborhood, the two men called “Foreign Official-l” — al-Asaker, according to the Washington Post — at 7:20 p.m., and again at 7:22 p.m. and 7:31 p.m. They then called Dr. Faisal Al Sudairi, the Saudi consul general in Los Angeles, at 8:30 p.m., 8:38 p.m., and 9:26 p.m. Shortly after midnight, the consul general called Alzabarah back and spoke with him for three minutes.
> Early the next morning, Alzabarah, his wife, and daughter boarded a plane for Saudi Arabia.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexkantrowitz/how-saud...
Twitter basically let him walk out. Probably afraid of backlash in case they called the cops on him.
I wonder how many people are murdered each year due to communications platforms that haven't implemented end to end encryption for private user communications, since all these large platforms are easily infiltrated by agents of homicidal regimes.
They are required to turn over data to the US federal authorities without a warrant (under FAA702), and they do this over 30,000 times per year per their own transparency report.
The mind reels. Can you imagine how much this is used for blackmail, extortion, coercion, parallel construction, etc?
Someone I know had been working for twitter and they said they were blown away at the lack of internal protections built in to the system. I guess it could be a goldmine of data for spies.
2020: How Saudi Arabia Infiltrated Twitter > When the conversation concluded, management seized Alzabarah’s laptop, put him on administrative leave, and escorted him out of the building. > At 5:17 p.m. he called a handler, identified as Associate-1 in the FBI complaint, who arrived in a white SUV two hours later. Driving around Alzabarah’s neighborhood, the two men called “Foreign Official-l” — al-Asaker, according t…
Why would a high suit shmoozing media partnership manager have access to user info? Seems like an issue of data access at Twitter.
For a long time many social networks were just any employee god mode. Access controls are just not a priority while blitz scaling and then very difficult to patch on after the fact.
That's why the app that I'm writing now, started off as seriously tinfoil. In fact, I've had to [reluctantly] loosen some of the armor, in order to add a few features.
I won't say that it's Fort Knox, but it ain't gonna be easy to crack.
The demographics of its target user base are pretty paranoid, so I have to do my homework.