A former employee at Meta Platforms Inc.’s WhatsApp filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging he repeatedly raised
d cybersecurity concerns about the messaging app with his superiors but was ignored and retaliated against.
Attaullah Baig, who identified himself as the former head of security at WhatsApp, said he discovered “system
mic cybersecurity failures that pose serious risks to user data” in 2021. For instance, Baig said he discovered that ab
ata and could move or steal it without detection or an audit trail, according to the lawsuit.
Carl Woog, a WhatsApp attendee, said, “Sadly, this is a familiar playbook in which a former employee is dismissed for poor performance and then goes public with amplified claims that misrep
resent the ongoing hard work of our team. Security is an adversarial space, and we pride ourselves in building on our strong record of protecting people’s privacy.”
Following the meaningful discovery, Baig raised concerns with his boss on about five occasions “that WhatsApp
restricted fundamental cybersecurity knowledge required for regulatory compliance” but his boss ignored them, the
suit states. He brought the flaws up with other superiors, including Meta Chief Executive Office
er Mark Zuckerberg. But instead of fixing the problems, Baig alleges the company retaliated against him with poor performance reviews and, eventually, his ouster due to poor performance.
In the lawsuit, Baig also said that WhatsApp relies on an around-the-clock security operations center and that a
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pproximately 100,000 users every day suffer account takeovers. He further claimed WhatsApp employed far fewer s
ecurity engineers than comparably sized companies. He said the cybersecurity issues could violate a 2020 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and securities laws.
Baig filed a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
According to WhatsApp reporter Zade Alsawah, that group found that Meta hadn't retaliated against him fo
r raising security concerns. A representative for OSHA didn't immediately respond to a call and email inquiring about Baig's complaint.
Baig said he was hired as a software engineering manager at Meta in 2021 and after an onboarding period becam
e head of security at WhatsApp. WhatsApp’s Alsawah said there were multiple directors above Baig reporting to the vic
e president of engineering and that his title is software engineering manager.
Baig and one of his attorneys didn't immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
Photo: The Facebook Inc. WhatsApp logo on a laptop computer. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg