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Intel finds a cure for its software security pain: Window Snyder
Microsoft, Mozilla veteran will also handle external researcher work
Intel has recruited noted computer security exec Window Snyder into its ranks to help improve its fortunes in the cybersecurity space.
Chipzilla said effective July 9, Snyder, formerly the chief security officer at Fastly, will be its new software chief security officer and vice president and general manager of the Intel Platform Security Division.
Among Snyder's duties in her new role will be working with operating system vendors and third-party researchers for "industry sensing" efforts to get Intel's security products working with new and future OSes.
"In this role with Intel, Window will be responsible for ensuring the company maintains a competitive security product roadmap across all segments in support of business group objectives and continues to engage with the external security ecosystem to apply industry trends and sensing to Intel roadmap differentiation," Doug Fisher, Intel senior VP and GM of the software and services group, said today.
Prior to Fastly, Snyder Spent five years with Apple's OS X and iOS security divisions, and headed up Mozilla's security operations for two years as "chief security something or other". She also spent three years as a security strategist with Microsoft.
The hiring comes in the middle of what has been, to say the least, a difficult year for Intel on the security front, at least in terms of optics. In early January, El Reg kicked up details on three major data-spilling security flaws, dubbed Spectre and Meltdown, that were present in Intel's microarchitectures, and Chipzilla was subsequently ripped for its handling of the situation.
By May, details emerged on another class of side-channel vulnerabilities present in Intel's CPUs, and in June yet another bug was found that could potentially cause programs to leak encryption keys and other sensitive information.
The Snyder hiring is also a sign that Chipzilla isn't going to put its business on hold while it searches for a new top boss, following the shock departure of CEO Brian Krzanich last week. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
