Former Twitter Employee Charged in SF Court for Espionage, Aiding Saudi Arabia and Other Charges

Isaiah Richard, Tech Times 09 August 2022, 07:08 pm

Former Twitter employee now faces charges of espionage, with one individual aiding and abetting Saudi Arabia in gathering critical and personal information that he received gifts for their actions. The employees are namely Ahmad Abouammo, Ali Alzabarah, and Ahmed Almutairi, with Abouamo now facing a 10 to 20-year sentence from a San Francisco federal court.

Former Twitter Employee Charged with Espionage in San Francisco Court

(Photo : Joshua Hoehne from Unsplash )

Bloomberg reported that a former employee, Ahmad Abouammo, is now facing a grave federal court decision on a sentence against him regarding espionage, later charged with falsifying records, wire fraud, and money laundering.

Abouammo is a former media manager for the Middle East and North Africa to promote its accounts, but he also worked alongside Saudi Arabia to gather email addresses, birthdays, and phone numbers and got compensation for it.

The report claimed that he leveraged his position to give up personal information to the Saudi Arabian government back in 2014 to 2015.

The former employee then blamed Twitter for not protecting their information and data, with him only doing the job that resulted in the charges against him.

Aiding Saudi Arabia in Gathering Critical Information

According to The Verge, Abouammo is not alone in the crimes against the public, with two former employees still wanted by the United States government. Ali Alzabarah and Ahmed Almutairi also got espionage charges to their names back in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

The information they gathered compromised several Saudi Arabian officials and their personal information via the online platform they formerly worked in, where they committed the crime.

Twitter and its Data and Information

Social media platforms are known to hold personal information from the public upon creating accounts, and it is something that users need to agree to finish their account setup. However, these companies should protect personal information and prevent third-party users, government entities, and other known elements from accessing it.

There was a case before that saw significant access to Twitter's systems that took the personal information of as many as 5.4 million users last January. Last July, some reports saw these personal information to be on sale to different bidders, with the threat actor offering it for $30,000 to anyone who can pay the price.

New updates to Twitter and its features that are under testing now are having regulars rethink if their data are safe on the platform as they feel "exposed" with their monthly tweet count on display.

A significant case put one dispute to rest, and it talks about a former Twitter employee who is now facing the music of a 10-year minimum and a 20 year-maximum in jail for his former actions. Nevertheless, these cases are only some of the many disputes that users raise against Twitter, with other issues present against the platform.

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Written by Isaiah Richard