Portions of Twitter’s source code have been leaked online, according to a legal filing in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
First reported by the New York Times, the contents of Twitter’s source code — the most important software that powers the platform and makes it work — has appeared on GitHub, an online hosting service for software development.
When Twitter learned that its source code was on GitHub on Friday, Twitter sent it a copyright infringement notice demanding immediate removal of the code.
GitHub complied with the takedown request, but the Times suggests the code may have already been exposed on the site for “at least several months.”
Twitter is also trying to get a court to order GitHub to reveal the identity of the person who disclosed the source code, along with the names of anyone who may have downloaded it.
The fear is that the code could reveal vulnerabilities in the platform, making it easier for hackers to exploit those weaknesses for nefarious purposes. Outcomes may include website shutdown or the theft and sale of user data.
Citing two people familiar with the matter, the Times said Twitter executives believe the code leaker likely left the company last year as part of major job cuts by new owner Elon Musk, who took over the platform in October 2022. worth 44 billion dollars.
Considering the upheaval that Twitter has experienced in recent months, the incident suggests that a disgruntled former employee may have been involved in a potentially damaging breach.
Because of its great importance, source code is a prime target for hackers. Despite the best efforts of companies to protect it, there have been many incidents where criminals managed to get their hands on valuable code. Microsoft, Samsung, and LastPass, to name a few, have seen hackers download the source code in just the past year.
But in the case of Twitter, parts of its source code were simply put on the web, giving everyone easy access.
Twitter and its community of more than 230 million daily active users worldwide will now be watching and waiting to see if the incident leads to major problems for the social media platform.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn