Microsoft Announces Major Security Leadership Change as it Replaces its Longtime CISO
Microsoft’s new CISO, Igor Tsyganskiy, joined the company only four months ago as the chief strategy officer.
- Microsoft has replaced its longtime chief information security officer (CISO) with a fresh face it hired only four months ago.
- The security shuffle comes on the heels of multiple cybersecurity lapses and an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Safety Review Board.
- Microsoft has instituted what it calls the Secure Future Initiative.
The fallout from the Microsoft 365 (M365) cloud environment compromise by Chinese threat actors Storm-0558, which led to the hack of over two dozen government officials and related consumer accounts across the U.S. and Western Europe, continues. This time, the victims include Microsoft CISO of 14 years, Bret Arsenault, and reportedly, corporate VP and deputy CISO Aanchal Gupta.
In a major, albeit quiet, shuffle of its security team, EVP of Microsoft’s security business, Charlie Bell, announced on LinkedIn Igor Tsyganskiy as the company’s new CISO under the Secure Future Initiative announced in November this year that focuses on “1. transforming software development, 2. implementing new identity protections, and 3. driving faster vulnerability response.”
A series of PrintNightmare vulnerabilities, ProxyShell bugs, two zero-day exchange server vulnerabilities known as ProxyNotShell, and the fact that Microsoft products had one-third (14 out of 42) of the top 42 exploited vulnerabilities of 2022 has been a source of a significant headache for the Windows maker, triggering the need for an investigation by Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB).
“So much of the world depends on Microsoft for its digital safety and we need look no further than the news headlines to know we live in a rapidly evolving threat landscape, one that is highly demanding and drives us to continually innovate and deliver,” Bell wrote.
See More: Over 57K Microsoft Exchange Servers Still Featuring ProxyNotShell Vulnerability
The executive reorganization would aim to approach the cybersecurity problem at Microsoft with a fresh take and thereby address mounting concerns. Tsyganskiy, who joined Microsoft only four months ago as the chief strategy officer, served at Bridgewater Associates for over seven years as its CTO, head of investment technologies, and head of investment technologies and critical infra.
He was also the SVP of product management at Salesforce for almost four years after his six-year tenure as the head of advanced technology group at SAP Labs. “Igor is a technologist and dynamic leader with a storied career in high-scale/high-security, demanding environments. He brings deep knowledge and experience from his previous role outside of Microsoft and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with him on this important work,” Bell added.
Tsyganskiy will assume his role as Microsoft CISO starting January 1, 2024, as Arsenault transitions to Microsoft’s chief security advisor. Meanwhile, Gupta’s LinkedIn profile update suggests she will serve as the CVP for the Office Product Group.
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