Former Blizzard Entertainment chief security officer (CSO) Mark Adams was introduced today as Adobe’s new CSO, in a role where he’ll be responsible for guiding the tech giant’s security steps in the company’s upcoming post-Flash era.
Adams filled a role left vacant after the departure of long-time industry veteran Brad Arkin, who left Adobe after 12 years (seven as CSO) in March 2020 to join Cisco as its new Chief Security and Trust Officer.
In his new role at Adobe, Adams will be in full control of the company’s security operations and will report to Adobe Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Abhay Parasnis.
“He will work closely with the key cross functional teams such as IT, Product and Legal, to continue to drive and maintain the processes required to help protect Adobe and our customers,” Adobe said today in a prepared statement.
Prior to joining Adobe today, Adams served for four years as CSO with Blizzard Entertainment, one of today’s top game makers, and the company behind market hits like World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and StarCraft.
From an outside perspective, Adams’ hiring fits perfectly in Adobe’s current product make-up and future strategies.
The company is set to retire its woefully insecure Flash Player app at the end of the year, a leftover product from a bygone era, and the app that has singlehandedly soiled Adobe’s reputation for more than a decade.
But once retired, the majority of Adobe’s product lines are all modern cloud-centric systems, from the company’s Creative Cloud line to its analytics, marketing, and enterprise solutions.
Most products are built and managed similar to Blizzard’s gaming products and the Battle.net app, with Adams’ experience in cloud security engineering and data privacy and audit/compliance fitting right in with what Adobe needs from a CSO in its post-Flash era.
“Suffice it to say that I feel hugely honored to take on this role,” Adams wrote today on LinkedIn, following his first day on the job.
