Reddit has hired Allison Miller as its CISO and VP of Trust, poaching the well-respected executive from Bank of America, where she most recently led technology and strategy design across its defensive technology portfolio.
Miller will oversee the Safety and Security teams at Reddit where she will be responsible for expanding trust and safety operations and data security, Reddit said this week, as well as "evolving programs to mitigate security challenges and risks" across the platform, which has over 53+ million daily users (December 2020 figures).
“We’re overjoyed to have Allison bring her extensive technical acumen and executive leadership to the Reddit family,” said Reddit CTO Chris Slowe: “She will play an instrumental role in helping to ensure that our platform is safe for our users, trusted to act with integrity, and secure against adversaries big and small.”
The hire comes after Reddit suffered a string of data breaches in recent years, including a June 2019 incident that saw an attacker compromise employee accounts with its cloud and source code hosting providers, with the main attack happening via 2FA SMS intercept. (The attackers got read-only access to systems.)
Miller said: “I’m excited to be joining Reddit’s team, and this is a great time to jump into the mix. Looking at the last year alone, it has been impressive to watch the pace of infrastructure and feature launches to meet the demands of new customers and increasing traffic on Reddit.
"Now is the perfect time to make sure that the platform’s security and trust systems are flexible and resilient enough to support the next phase of transformation. I see a huge opportunity to help scale the platform’s safety infrastructure, strengthen existing cybersecurity measures, and improve the suite of capabilities that protect Redditors, their accounts, and the integrity of their communities.”
"Very psyched about the new gig, give me a sec to get onboard and then *i'll be hiring*," she added on Twitter.
In other C-suite security moves announced this week, RobinHood has hired DataStax's security VP Caleb Sima as its new Chief Security Officer, while Cisco has promoted Anthony Grieco to the CISO slot in the wake of Mike Hanley's departure, according to Business Insider.
