The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly investigating into Twitter (now known as X) handled a security issue that caused a leakage of users' personal information back in 2018.
Read Also: Musk Faces Defamation, Calls Student "Psyop" in Neo-Nazi Brawl
Twitter's Security Lapse in 2018
In 2018, the personal information of Twitter users was exposed after a bug allowed outsiders to access the users' email addresses during password resets. It also allegedly resulted in people having their identities revealed.
In addition, another security breach in 2018 exposed the users' passwords due to a computer virus. A security flaw in the social media system made it possible for others to track the country codes of Twitter users' phone numbers. Bloomberg also reported that since 2018, Twitter suffered over a half-dozen hacks or security issues.
All of these instances happened during the leadership of Twitter's former CFO Ned Segal and CTO Parag Agrawal. Meanwhile, Jack Dorsey was the CEO of Twitter in 2018. Both Agrawal and Segal were kicked out of the company after Elon Musk bought it for $44 billion.
SEC Looks into Twitter's Flaws in 2018
Last week, the SEC sued Musk after failing to appear on a scheduled testimony in September. The SEC has been looking into Musk's acquisition and finding out if anyone has committed securities fraud during the purchase of Twitter in 2022.
In line with it, the SEC has opened the 2018 security issues as part of Musk's effort to cancel his plans to buy Twitter. According to Musk, Twitter has been plagued with an operational problem that has resulted in failing to protect its customers' data.
The SEC probe is focused on discovering whether the executives at the time were able to properly disclose the platform's security flaws to its shareholders and if there were any proper controls that were put into place.
Related Article: SEC Sues Elon Musk After Failing to Appear for Testimony
