SAN FRANCISCO — June 29, 2017 — Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA), the leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise, today announced the appointment of Yassir Abousselham as Chief Security Officer. Abousselham brings nearly 20 years of experience leading security teams to Okta, and will report directly to Todd McKinnon, Okta CEO and cofounder.
Abousselham is a veteran security executive, most recently serving as Chief Information Security Officer at SoFi, where he built the company’s information security and privacy program. He also held leadership positions at Google, where he built both the Corporate Security and the Payments Security programs, as well as at the Americas Information Security Center of Excellence at Ernst & Young LLP, where he held a variety of technical and consultancy roles during his 11 year tenure. Abousselham will be responsible for ensuring Okta and its products meet the highest standards of security, ultimately enabling more organizations to securely connect their employees, partners and customers to technology.
“Security is increasingly top of mind for organizations around the globe. We’ve always been committed to achieving the highest level of security standards for both our business and our customers,” said McKinnon. “We needed an experienced security executive with a successful track record of building security teams, driving secure product development, managing technology risk and achieving regulatory compliance to lead that initiative. Yassir fits that bill exactly, and we’re thrilled to have him at the helm of our world class security team.”
Abousselham joins at a time of rapid growth and innovation for the Okta team, particularly on the security front. Over the last year, Okta has achieved HIPAA compliance and certification in the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), building on Okta’s SOC2, CSA STAR and ISO 27018 certifications to offer the strongest security in the identity management industry. Okta was also recently named a leader in Gartner’s Inaugural Magic Quadrant for Access Management, and has expanded globally with new offices in Toronto, London, Seattle and San Jose. Okta also recently joined forces with Stormpath to accelerate growth of the Okta identity platform for developers, which Abousselham will support as customers leverage Okta’s APIs to build identity into their products.
“Businesses are under attack like never before and such attacks will only continue to intensify in sophistication and regularity. As organizations everywhere continue to move to the cloud and adopt best-of-breed technologies, traditional security tools aren't able to address the mounting security challenges that they demand. The Okta Identity Cloud not only enables customers to seamlessly access technology, but solve their toughest security and access challenges,” said Abousselham. “I've always wanted to lead security at a company dedicated to driving productivity for its customers and keeping them secure. I’m excited to work with Okta’s team of highly skilled security professionals who are dedicated to ensuring that our customers are able to continue innovating — knowing that Okta is there to guard their digital assets.”
Follow Okta
