Apple has named David Rice, author and former National Security Agency analyst, as its new director of global security, it was reported today.
Details about Rice's position are unknown, but he is expected to begin work at Apple in March, according to AllThingsD.
Rice, a former NSA analyst and security officer for the U.S. Navy, has spent the last few years as the director of The Monterey Group, a computer security consulting firm in Salinas, Calif. He is also the author of, "Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Insecure Software" and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. With his work at think tanks and in the national eye, Rice is a high-profile hire -- much like Apple's hire of Ivan Krstic, former head of security of "One Laptop Per Child" and Window Snyder, former security chief for Mozilla.
While Rice has a reputation for putting corporate officers at ease, but he has also been a supporter of a "bug tax," or a tax on companies who release software that need fixes -- the more frequent or severe, the higher the fee. In the past, he has also been openly critical of Apple's security.
Perhaps Apple is really attempting to find a head of security who will be proactively patrolling against security flaws. Someone who can give users a relatively bug-free experience and solidify Apple's global reputation.
