ITP Techblog

A New Zealand Twitter user is in the gun after the US Department of Homeland Security issued a subpoena to Twitter demanding his or her user information.

The user (@s7nsins, whose screen name is Flash Gordon) has published excerpts from the subpoena on his or her account, and regularly tweets about data breaches and security issues with unprotected servers. Judging by the account, the user is active in the security space and was partly responsible for uncovering nearly a million US patient records backed-up without security controls to an Amazon Web Services account.

The subpoena requires Twitter hand over the account information for @s7nsins including address, phone numbers and email addresses associated with the account, and any credit card information associated with the account. The user was understandably shocked by this, and approached his local police station, who told him or her it was probably a hoax and to ignore it.

Twitter revelled the existence of the subpoena to the user as per its policy. The user is now seeking legal support to challenge the request.

No explanation was given for the subpoena's issuance, and approaches by media to the DHS spokespeople were rebuffed.