Twitter breaks up with 2FA company after surveillance scandal

Just ahead of Valentine’s Day, Twitter confirmed that it was ending its relationship with Mitto, a Swiss-based tech company that provided the social media platform with two-factor authentication (2FA) services. The decision isn’t the result of a simple contract expiration or new security options, but due to the revelation last December that one of Mitto’s co-founders, former COO Ilja Gorelik, had been selling secret surveillance access to governments that could track users through their smartphones... so, yeah. Somewhat of a breach of trust there.

For what it’s worth, Twitter PR claims the company had no idea Gorelik was engaging in the shady, invasive profiteering scheme. But while Twitter has publicly cut ties with the company, Engadget reports that customers could still include “Google, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, Tencent and Alibaba.” We can’y believe we’re saying this, but hopefully they’ll follow Twitter’s example and find another supplier of 2FA tech.

Doing the right thing for a change — To be honest, it’s somewhat surprising to see Twitter take the right course of action for once. From enabling rightwing proto-fascists to NFT profile pictures to... whatever the hell decision this was, the social media giant has never really been one to take proactive steps towards a better digital landscape. It’s good to see that, instead of merely sweeping things under the rug, the company decided to end its partnership with Mitto after last December’s security scandal.

Mitta’s damage clean-up — Mitto, for its part, appears to be doing its best to control the damage already done by Gorelik’s little side hustle. A spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg this week that their former COO is no longer employed at the company, and that it was taking steps to launch an internal investigation into the matter to determine how to best rectify the situation.