Adobe Creates Role of Chief Cybersecurity Legal Officer

Adobe has appointed Maarten Van Horenbeeck to the role of chief security officer (CSO) and Nubiaa Shabaka to the roles of chief privacy officer and chief cybersecurity legal officer.

Adobe has confirmed for SecurityWeek that Shabaka is the first to hold the title of chief cybersecurity legal officer.

“Her responsibilities encompass overseeing aspects of Adobe’s global data protection and privacy programs and legal aspects of Adobe’s global cybersecurity and information security programs, on an enterprise-wide scale,” Adobe said.

The new CSO, Van Horenbeeck, will be responsible for cybersecurity-related decisions across the company, helping Adobe further secure its systems, solutions and networks, and protect customer and company data.

The role of CSO was previously held by Mark Adams, who worked for the company between November 2020 and April 2022.

Adobe said Van Horenbeeck and Shabaka have joined the Legal, Security and Policy organization, which is led by general counsel and chief trust officer (CTO) Dana Rao.

“Together, these groups work to enhance a unified strategy that leverages technology, law, and policy to further strengthen Adobe’s products and services to deliver exceptional digital experiences that are built on trust,” Adobe said.

Prior to his role at Adobe, Van Horenbeeck served as CTO of Zendesk, and also held cybersecurity-related positions at Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Fastly. Before joining Adobe, Shabaka held privacy and security leadership roles at AIG and Morgan Stanley.

The two new executives were introduced just before Adobe announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire collaborative design platform Figma for approximately $20 billion in cash and stock.

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