Ex-Twitter employees charged with spying for Saudi Arabian government

One former Twitter employee arrested on Tuesday in Seattle - form Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos warns that there will be more

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged two former Twitter employees with spying on user accounts on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government.

The indictment filed earlier this week in the US district court in San Francisco details a coordinated effort by the Saudi government officials to recruit Twitter employees as their unofficial agents to hunt for the sensitive data of thousands of Twitter users.

According to The Washington Post, federal agents on Tuesday arrested a former Twitter employee, named Ahmad Abouammo, on charges of illegally accessing the private data of Twitter users and falsifying documents to hinder an FBI investigation.

Abouammo, who was arrested from Seattle, is a US citizen who resigned from Twitter in 2015.

In the court indictment, another Twitter employee, named Ali Alzabarah, was charged with accessing the private details of more than 6,000 Twitter users in 2015 on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Alzabarah fled the US in 2015 and is now thought to be living in Saudi Arabia.

One of the accounts accessed by Alzabarah belonged to Omar Abdulaziz, a prominent critic of Saudi government. Abdulaziz was close to Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was killed last year during his visit to Istanbul. In its investigation, the CIA concluded that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had personally ordered Khashoggi's murder.

According to the federal prosecutors, a third individual, named Ahmed Almutairi, acted as a go-between the Saudi officials and Twitter employees. The DoJ has also charged Almutairi, a Saudi citizen, with spying.

While the indictment doesn't directly names any Saudi official responsible for running the operation, the Washington Post's report claims that a Saudi national who recruited Twitter employees as their agents is close to bin Salman.

This is the first time that the US government has formally charged Saudis citizens of spying in the United States.

"US law protects U.S. companies from such an unlawful foreign intrusion," Attorney David Anderson said in a statement.

"We will not allow US companies or U.S. technology to become tools of foreign repression in violation of U.S. law," he added.

Twitter thanked the DoJ and the FBI for supporting the investigation. "We recognise the lengths bad actors will go to try and undermine our service," the company said in a statement.

"We understand the incredible risks faced by many who use Twitter to share their perspectives with the world and to hold those in power accountable," it added.

Commenting on the case Alex Stamos, the former chief security officer at Facebook, suggested that while most organisations got their physical and IT security (more or less) right, they were often lacking when it came to the human element.

However, he warned that it is almost certain that more spies embedded in technology and internet companies will be found.

"This is a huge deal," he tweeted. "[There are] lots of tech employees have access to data and families back home. All big tech companies need internal monitoring and hunting teams.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wouldn't be at the top of my list of high-risk countries with lots of citizens in Silicon Valley. There will be more.