Apple has hired George Stathakopoulos to be the company's vice president of corporate information security, a new position at the company. Fortune reported that Apple hired Mr. Stathakopoulos, who was formerly vice president of information security at Amazon. He also spent time at Microsoft as general manager of product security.
Mr. Stathakopoulos will report to Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri, and he will be in charge of protecting corporate assets, including the computers used to design products and write software. He will also be in charge of protecting customer data.
It's that last part that may be particularly interesting in light of Apple's ongoing fight with the FBI to maintain the integrity of iOS devices. The FBI has gotten a court order forcing Apple to create a new operating system—dubbed GovtOS by Apple—that bypasses security protections in iOS. Apple is fighting the order, and both parties will take part in an evidentiary hearing on Tuesday, March 22nd.
Apple hasn't announced the move, but Fortune's sources said Mr. Stathakopoulos started at Apple a week ago. His LinkedIn profile still lists Amazon as his current employer.