Twitter hires new cyber chief after devastating breach

published 1 October 2020

Twitter’s platform lead Nick Tornow tweeted out the news that the social media company has hired Rinki Sethi to be its new chief information security officer (CISO).

Tornow’s tweet read, “Today, I’m thrilled to welcome @rinkisethi as the new CISO of @twitter. An inspiring and experienced leader, Rinki comes to us via Rubrik, IBM, and Palo Alto Networks. At Twitter, she will lead our growing InfoSec team, protecting our customers and our company to earn trust.”

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In mid-July, a 17-year-old Florida boy hacked Twitter and hijacked a number of high-profile accounts, including Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Bill Gates. He then used those accounts to post a Bitcoin scam. The hack exposed some serious issues in Twitter’s security, prompting the company to announce it would ramp up security on high-profile accounts.

Mike Convertino, Twitter’s former security chief, left the company in December 2019, and the role has remained vacant since.

As CISO, Sethi will lead the company’s information security policies and practices. As Tornow stated, Sethi has worked with Rubrik, IBM and Palo Alto Networks. She also helps out as an advisor for many startup companies, including Authomize and LevelOps.

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