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ByteDance just fired 4 employees after they accessed sensitive data

ByteDance just fired 4 employees after they accessed sensitive data

According to ByteDance, four employees were sacked for accessing the data of many US-based TikTok users, including journalists. An outside law firm’s examination revealed that the staff members were looking for the sources of leaks to reporters. Two of the employees worked for ByteDance in the US and two in China.

According to the firm, investigators looked into the IP addresses and other information associated with the TikTok accounts of a reporter from BuzzFeed News and Cristina Criddle of the Financial Times. “The misconduct of those individuals, who are no longer employed at ByteDance, was an egregious misuse of their authority to obtain access to user data. This misbehavior is unacceptable, and not in line with our efforts across TikTok to earn the trust of our users, we take data security incredibly seriously, and we will continue to enhance our access protocols, which have already been significantly improved and hardened since this incident took place.”

Several individuals with connections to the journalists’ data are also reported to have been accessed by the staff. ByteDance allegedly followed three of Forbes’ correspondents who had previously worked for BuzzFeed News. Reports on TikTok, including information on its purported connections to the Chinese government, have appeared in all three of those publications. According to a Forbes article from October, employees of ByteDance’s Internal Audit and Risk Control division intended to utilise TikTok to monitor the whereabouts of particular US individuals. Although ByteDance denied those allegations, the report is consistent with the findings of the internal inquiry. The business informed the Times that it has reorganised that division and barred it from accessing any US data.

ByteDance just fired 4 employees after they accessed sensitive data

ByteDance just fired 4 employees after they accessed sensitive data

According to ByteDance, four employees were sacked for accessing the data of many US-based TikTok users, including journalists. An outside law firm’s examination revealed that the staff members were looking for the sources of leaks to reporters. Two of the employees worked for ByteDance in the US and two in China.

According to the firm, investigators looked into the IP addresses and other information associated with the TikTok accounts of a reporter from BuzzFeed News and Cristina Criddle of the Financial Times. “The misconduct of those individuals, who are no longer employed at ByteDance, was an egregious misuse of their authority to obtain access to user data. This misbehavior is unacceptable, and not in line with our efforts across TikTok to earn the trust of our users, we take data security incredibly seriously, and we will continue to enhance our access protocols, which have already been significantly improved and hardened since this incident took place.”

Several individuals with connections to the journalists’ data are also reported to have been accessed by the staff. ByteDance allegedly followed three of Forbes’ correspondents who had previously worked for BuzzFeed News. Reports on TikTok, including information on its purported connections to the Chinese government, have appeared in all three of those publications. According to a Forbes article from October, employees of ByteDance’s Internal Audit and Risk Control division intended to utilise TikTok to monitor the whereabouts of particular US individuals. Although ByteDance denied those allegations, the report is consistent with the findings of the internal inquiry. The business informed the Times that it has reorganised that division and barred it from accessing any US data.