Twitter hires Zatko

Twitter hires Zatko to strengthen cybersecurity resilience

by | Nov 19, 2020 | IT Security

The new security chief appointment is part of Twitter’s targeted effort to enhance its cybersecurity infrastructure and prevent unauthorized access to its systems.
Share to lead the transformation

Social media behemoth Twitter hires Peiter Zatko! That’s the big news making waves this week in the cybersecurity circles. Zatko, who is better known as ‘Mudge,’ has been roped in as the security chief by Twitter to further beef-up its cybersecurity architecture. Zatko, aka ‘Mudge‘ is considered one of the world’s top hackers and has held top research positions at Google, Defense Advanced Research and Projects Agency, and Stripe.

Peiter Zatco

Peiter Zatco

In his new role, Zatko will evaluate and make necessary policy changes around Twitter’s cybersecurity, physical security, and platform integrity. Zatko will directly report to Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter. A couple of months back, Twitter also appointed Rinki Sethi, an ex-IBM executive, as its new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). This position had been vacant since December 2019.  (See: Twitter hires Rinki Sethi as CISO to keep hackers at bay)

Twitter’s new appointments are part of its targeted efforts to enhance its cybersecurity infrastructure and prevent unauthorized access to its systems. The company has been facing severe criticism in the recent past because of its vulnerable IT systems

In July this year, Twitter witnessed a massive cybersecurity breach in its systems that resulted in many high-profile accounts getting hacked and created a massive furor in the digital world.

The infamous hacking incident, also known as the bitcoin hack, involved the widespread hack of several high-profile verified Twitter accounts, including ex-US President Barack Obama, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The cybercriminals gained unauthorized access to the administrative controls of Twitter and hacked the accounts of famous personalities with millions of followers, and offered forged bitcoin deals.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has forced businesses to enable full remote work environment and has opened the floodgates of security breaches. Threat actors and cyber-criminals are increasingly looking at opportunities to take advantage of cybersecurity loopholes in an organization to gain access and use it for personal gains (See: Top enterprise cybersecurity trends of 2020).

To mitigate the cybersecurity threats, security chiefs across organizations are expected to take a massive overhaul route to enable the best identity and access software and policies that could timely prohibit any unauthorized access.

MORE FROM BETTER WORLD

Climate Change: Javadekar takes charge

Climate Change: Javadekar takes charge

Prakash Javadekar today assumed charge as the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change here today. He was greeted at the office at Paryavaran Bhawan by Environment Secretary Shri C K Mishra and other senior officials of the ministry. Babul Supriyo also assumed charge as Minister of State.

Briefing the media after assuming the charge, the Union Minister said it is like a home coming for him as he already served in the ministry for two years in the first term of NDA government. He stressed that we will strongly reinforce that this ministry is seen as a facilitator and not merely as a regulator. “Economic growth and environment protection should go simultaneously, and we need to work with an increased impetus towards that”, said Javadekar.

After assuming the charge, the Minister also held a meeting with the senior officers of the Ministry where he was briefed on the key initiatives and policy issues of the Ministry.

Infosys Foundation Opens Aarohan Awards 2019

Infosys Foundation Opens Aarohan Awards 2019

social-impact

The awards would recognize solutions that could positively impact the underprivileged in India. (Representative image)

Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of Infosys, has announced the launch of the second edition of the Aarohan Social Innovation Awards. The award is aimed at accelerating innovation in the social sector. The Aarohan Social Innovation Awards 2019 seek to recognize and reward individuals, teams or NGOs developing unique solutions that have the potential to positively impact the underprivileged in India, at scale.

Speaking at the launch of the second edition of the awards, Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murty said, “The Aarohan Social Innovation Awards 2018 was a huge success. Infosys Foundation witnessed a very good response from social innovators across the country and eventually, 12 leading innovators were recognised and awarded. The overwhelming response we got last year, has reaffirmed my belief that there are innumerable innovators across India who are looking up to this platform to give wings to their passion by scaling their innovation and impacting millions of lives. With the second edition of the awards, we hope to discover these hidden social innovators across the country and help them scale the power of their social innovations”

The awards will accept submissions across six categories, namely, Healthcare, Rural Development, Destitute Care, Women’s Safety & Empowerment, Education & Sports, and Sustainability.

The submission process for the second edition of these awards commences on July 15, 2019 and will continue till September 30, 2019. Participants can submit entries describing their work in the form of videos that can be uploaded on the Aarohan Social Innovation Awards website. The entries must be of a fully functioning prototype, not just a concept, idea or mock up. Additionally, the project must not be an established commercial venture.

Aarohan Social Innovation Awards will also offer winners an opportunity for residential technical mentorship at the IIT Hyderabad campus for up to 12 weeks to help them further develop and scale their solutions.

A panel of distinguished judges will evaluate and select the winners whose submissions will be assessed on five broad criteria – application to a social problem or need, innovative use of technology, originality of ideas, ease of use and the quality of presentation. The jury will comprise Prof. Trilochan Sastry, former Dean, IIM Bangalore; Padma Shree Arvind Gupta, an Indian toy inventor and science expert; Prof. Anil Gupta, visiting faculty member, IIM Ahmedabad, a globally renowned scholar of grassroots innovations and founder of the Honey Bee Network; Prof. GVV Sharma, Faculty member of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Coordinator, Teaching Learning Centre, IIT Hyderabad; Sumit Virmani, Senior Vice President and Global Head – Marketing, Infosys, and Infosys Foundation Chairperson, renowned author and philanthropist Sudha Murty.

0 Comments