Apple hires ex-NSA expert to lead security teams

Apple has hired ex-NSA security analyst David Rice as its newly-appointed Director of Global Security.

A graduate of the US Naval Academy and previously a ‘vulnerabilities analyst’ at the NSA and a cryptologist for the US Navy, Rice will lead Apple’s security plans. David Rice is also the author of the extremely compelling, ‘Geekonomics:the real cost of insecure software‘. In this he argues that software developers need to focus more tightly on writing secure software.

The appointment comes as Apple sees growing iPad and iPhone sales in the security-conscious enterprise markets. A All Things D report states that Rice can, “…speak the kind of language that makes CIOs comfortable, but can also back up that language with the skills and knowledge to match.”

Rice is the latest in a series of key security-focused hires at Apple:

• Last March, it hired Window Snyder, Mozilla’s former security chief at Mozilla and now Apple’s senior product manager for security
• In 2009 Apple hired Ivan Krstic, former One Laptop Per Child head of security.
• 2010: Apple hires Jon Callas, the former CTO of encryption software maker PGP (now Symantec).

The hire has not yet been confirmed by Apple or Rice.