From: InfoSec News (alertsinfosecnews.org)
Date: Wed Jul 22 2009 - 01:45:08 CDT

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http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12886345

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News Columnist
07/21/2009

The publication of internal documents about Twitter that were filched by
a hacker caused fans across Silicon Valley to express their outrage —
before they hunkered down to read them.

For all the controversy, my own gut reaction after reading the notes and
financial projections: "Is that it?" These were the great trade secrets
that the valley fretted could undermine Twitter's future and send it
plunging off a cliff? Hardly.

After covering Silicon Valley for more than a decade, I remain astounded
by how companies of all sizes remain obsessed with secrecy. We live in
an age of growing transparency. Yet companies are desperately pushing
back against the information age they are enabling. Apparently, openness
and sharing is good for everyone but them.

Let's be clear. Companies of any size, even large publicly traded
companies, are required to share only the tiniest, thinnest bits of
information about themselves. Anytime they are asked to make the
slightest concession toward more disclosure, expect whining, followed by
lobbying.

Twitter didn't ask to be hacked, and certainly didn't deserve it. But
whatever internal anxieties it caused, the resulting revelations would
hardly quicken anyone's pulse.

[...]

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