The US Department of Justice has charged two (now former) Twitter employees and one other person, alleging that these individuals monitored users Twitter information to the Saudi royal family.
According to the allegations, Saudi officials paid the former employees to spy on thousands of user accounts and steal various personal data .
The three defendants are Ahmad Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah (former employees) and Ahmed Almutairi. The Ministry issued an arrest for the three individuals, charging them with illegally accessing personal information and working as illegal agents for a foreign government.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, from November 2014 to May 2015, Saudi officials persuaded the two former employees to use corporate credentials to gain access to private information on specific Twitter users. The targets were primarily individuals who were critical of the Saudi government and royal family.
Abouammo had worked at Twitter as a Partnerships Manager for about two years. During that time, he met with a Saudi official in London. According to the charges, after the meeting, Abouammo began accessing user data without permission. One of the targets of the espionage said he was critical of the Saudi royal family and had more than 1 million followers.
However, according to the complaint, Abouammo continued to work for the Saudis and hack into user accounts even after his employment with Twitter ended, enlisting the help of former colleagues.
Saudi officials are said to have rewarded Abouammo with $300,000, and also gifted him a watch worth $20,000.
The FBI questioned Abouammo last year. The intelligence agency alleges that the defendant provided a false receipt showing a $100,000 payment from the Saudi official for media advice.
The second Twitter employee, Alzabarah, began working at the company as an engineer in 2013. In May 2015, he traveled to Washington, where, according to the charges, he met with Saudi officials.
From May to November 2015, Alzabarah accessed Twitter user data without authorization. Alzabarah gained access to the data of 6,000 users , including 33 users who Saudi law enforcement authorities considered dangerous and had requested information from the social networking platform in the past
One of Alzabarah's targets was a "well-known critic of the Saudi government and royal family, who had sought asylum in Canada.".
According to the US Department of Justice, Alzabarah had access to various information, including recent IP addresses, device details , biographical information, browser information and activities on the Twitter platform
