Although the exact time the source code was made public is not known, the New York Times reported that it may have been leaked for several months before being removed. According to the information, the only publication by that user dates from January of this year and represents a blow to Musk’s company, which intends to make the platform open source as of March 31.
Why is the Twitter source code leak important?
Commonly, the source code is usually one of the most important trade secrets of a company and the fact that it is made public is a problem since in this way different gaps in the platform could be revealed, from security vulnerabilities to information that represents an advantage to competitors.
This element is so relevant that it is even one of the main targets of hackers when they carry out their attacks. To mention one case, Microsoft was the victim of such an attack last year, when the cybercriminal group, Lapsus$, stole a part of Bing’s code.
According to the Times report, Twitter executives suspect that a former employee who left the company last year may have been responsible for the leak. Faced with these potential sabotage attempts, the company has implemented code freezes prior to layoffs.
