Twitter Source Code Leaked Online, Ex-Staffer Suspected To Be Behind Leak: Report

The New York Times has reported that a part of the source code of Twitter was posted on the coding repository GitHub, owned by Microsoft.?

The Times reported that GitHub took down the code after Twitter's reqiest. It further reported that Twitter has approached authorities for a formal investigation in addition to carrying out an internal investigation.

The Times reported, "Twitter also asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to order GitHub to identify the person who shared the code and any other individuals who downloaded it, according to the filing.

"Twitter began an investigation into the leak and executives handling the matter have surmised that whoever was responsible left the San Francisco-based company last year, two people briefed on the internal investigation said."

Source code is a computer program on which a website or a software runs. After the leak, Twitter faces potential cybersecurity concerns.

"One concern is that the code includes security vulnerabilities that could give hackers or other motivated parties the means to extract user data or take down the site," reported The Times, citing sources.

This is at least the second time in recent months that a leak related to Twitter has been found. Earlier in December, an Israeli cyber-security firm had reported that personal data of around 40 crore users was on sale on the dark web. The report says the data was obtained by the seller in early 2022.?

The GitHub user who leaked Twitter's source code partially had the username of FreeSpeechEnthusiast. Finding this person would be difficult as the suspicion of them being a former employer casts a very wide net, as 75 per cent of the workforce has been fired since Elon Musk took over Twitter last year.