Hacker Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, a whistleblower who
served as Twitter's head of security until his firing in January, testified in
September that some Twitter employees were concerned the Chinese government
would be able to collect data on the company's users.
In a letter to Musk dated Tuesday and released on Wednesday,
Grassley, the top Republican on the U.S. Judiciary Committee, asked Twitter to
perform a threat assessment "of Twitter's current security posture and
systems to better protect user data and privacy." He also asked for the
committee staff to be briefed on the findings.
"Twitter collects vast amounts of data on American
citizens. Americans have a vested interest in ensuring that their private data
is secure, and that the companies which they have entrusted with their private
data have not been infiltrated by foreign agents," Grassley wrote.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Zatko testified that a foreign agent could use malware to
steal Twitter users personal information, and use that to gain access to
sensitive data on the person's phone, among other dangers.
The correspondence reiterated some concerns raised in a
prior letter sent by Grassley and Democrat Dick Durbin in September to former
chief executive Parag Agrawal, who led the company until October, when Musk
took it over in a $44 billion deal.
According to Grassley, Agrawal did not respond to the
letter, citing litigation with Musk. -Reuters