Apple Hires Amazon Executive as VP of Corporate Information Security: Reuters

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According to a new report from Reuters, Apple has hired away Amazon’s vice president of information security George Stathakopoulos. The report comes days before Apple is set to meet U.S. prosecutors in court over a contentious encryption fight involving an iPhone linked to last year’s San Bernardino terror attack.

The report notes that Stathakopoulos has been at work at Apple for about one week heading up the company’s corporate security operation, a position similar to the one he left behind at Amazon.

At Apple, Stathakopoulos answers to CFO Luca Maestri and is responsible for securing corporate computers used to design and develop products and software, as well as systems storing sensitive customer data.

While the hire has not yet been confirmed, the publication does provide circumstantial evidence supporting its claims. A reporter who called Apple’s switchboard asking to speak with Stathakopoulos was connected to a person who answered, “George’s office,” Fortune said.

According to Stathakopoulos’ LinkedIn page, which still lists Amazon as his current employer, the security expert worked to “protect Amazon and its customers” against digital threats and directed the e-commerce giant’s IT infrastructure.

Prior to joining Amazon in 2010, Stathakopoulos worked at Microsoft as an engineer, then as general manager of product security. It is not clear if Stathakopoulos will be putting any of those skills to work at Apple, but it seems very likely that he will.

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