Security News > 2022 > July > TikTok's chief security officer steps aside, thanks to Oracle move

TikTok's Global Chief Security Officer Roland Cloutier has "Transitioned" from his job into "a strategic advisory role focusing on the business impact of security and trust programs."

Cloutier's change was revealed in a Saturday organizational update that starts with Cloutier himself signing off from the job on grounds that TikTok has "Made significant progress in delivering on the promises we've made to our global community, business partners, and governments around the world."

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and ByteDance VP of Technology Dingkun Hong then weigh in with praise of Cloutier, and an explanation that Cloutier's efforts to make Oracle Cloud the default storage option for US-based users' data means the time is right for the CSO to take on new responsibilities.

Which is all very nice, except for one small but important detail: since trumpeting Oracle as its default storage provider, TikTok has also revealed that staffers in China can still see US users' data.

TikTok has assured the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States that when offshore entities view US users' data they can't see anything personal that might raise concerns that Beijing has any prospect of seeing sensitive stuff.

Doing so requires considerable prowess and suggests ByteDance has come to the same conclusions about the devices as its cloudy peers: that offloading housekeeping and security chores to a SmartNIC improves IaaS performance and resilience.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/07/18/tiktok_cso_steps_down/