Apple appoints new director of global security

Apple has appointed a new "Director of Global Security". Quoting several informed sources, the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog reports that IT security expert and author David Rice has been appointed to the new post.

Rice has a US government background: After graduating from the US Naval Academy and receiving a master’s degree in "Information Warfare and Systems Engineering", he served as a "Special Duty Cryptologic officer" for the US Navy and as a "Global Network Vulnerability analyst" for the US National Security Agency (NSA). More recently he was the executive director of internet security firm Monterey Group and then worked for the IANS information security research company. Exactly what Apple's new "Director of Global Security" post will entail remains to be seen – the company has yet to officially confirm Rice's appointment.

Apple has recently expanded its IT security team. Last year, it hired Window Snyder, previously head of security at Mozilla, as its "Senior Product Manager for Security". Further new employees include Jon Callas, formerly Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for encryption experts PGP, and Ivan Krstic, previously director of IT security for the One Laptop per Child project. Security experts had recently said that Apple needs to catch up. Among other things, the company needs more security expertise because it has been increasingly selling computing technology to government agencies.

See also:

• Apple hires ex-Mozilla security chief, a report from The H.
• Former OLPC security chief joins Apple, a report from The H.

(crve)