WATCH: Josh Hawley Shocked After Hearing Thousands of Twitter Employees Can Access User Data

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) was shocked to learn that thousands of Twitter employees have access to user data, expressing concerns about potential doxxing during a Tuesday hearing on the company’s security.

Peiter Zatko, the former chief security for Twitter, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Twitter is a decade behind in industry standards of security and painted a picture of a concerning lack of security and oversight on data at the social media platform.

Zatko also testified that approximately 4000 employees have access to live user data, a point Hawley found particularly worrying.

“They would have access to the production environment. If they spent the time to meander around and look around, they would find that they could access these large troves of data,” Zatko said while being questioned by Hawley, who shook his head in disbelief.

Hawley asked whether this user information includes “geolocation data.” Zatko said Twitter does use “geolocation services” based on IP addresses.

“Wow,” Hawley said. “4000 employees with access to that data. That’s extraordinary.”

The senator theorized that with this sort of access to information, thousands of employees are “in a position” to dox individual Twitter users.

“That is a concern of mine, sir,  yes,” Zatko said.

“That is a significant concern,” Hawley said, repeating the massive number of employees with the alleged access.

Zatko filed a complaint highlighting alleged security gaps at Twitter with the Department of Justice. In his opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Zatko warned that it’s “not far fetched” to say a Twitter employee could take over the accounts of every lawmaker in attendance at the hearing.

“It’s not far-fetched to say an employee in the company could take over the accounts of all the senators in this room,” he said.

The former security officer said he presented “concrete evidence” of security issues to executives at Twitter, but was turned away. He accused his former employer of then “misleading the public, lawmakers, and even its own board of directors” about the state of its security.

Watch above via CSPAN