Facebook’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, will leave the company later this year, according to the New York Times. His departure was reportedly the result of disagreements over how to address the spread of misinformation on the largest social network. Along with Alex Stamos’ departure, Facebook is overhauling its entire security team. Nearly all of the team’s 120 employees have now been assigned to product and infrastructure teams, according to the publication. It’s unclear at this time whether Facebook has another dedicated security team or whether that means the security teams are now integrated into other departments. Alex Stamos’ departure was reportedly decided last year, but the company decided to keep him until August to hand over his duties to others. It wouldn’t have seemed so bad for Facebook’s reputation and customer base if it hadn’t come amid ongoing revelations about Russia’s misuse of the platform during the 2016 US election. But after the Cambridge Analytica scandal , there seems to be little doubt about the extent of the misuse. According to the publication, Facebook executives appear to be unhappy with Stamos’ approach and seem to blame him for the recent backlash against the company for covering up the breach for years. In a tweet , Stamos said that his role has changed within Facebook, but that he remains “fully committed.” However, he did not rule out leaving. “Today I spend more time exploring emerging security risks and working on election security,” Stamos said. Reuters also reported that he will leave in August and that his responsibilities had been “removed.” Facebook said in a statement that Stamos remains the company’s chief security officer, without acknowledging any change in his role. “Alex Stamos continues to be the Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Facebook,” a spokesperson said. “He has held this position for nearly three years and has led our security efforts, especially around emerging risks. He is a valued member of the team and we are grateful for everything he does every day.” Stamos joined Facebook in 2015. Before that, he was the chief information security officer at Yahoo. According to Reuters, he resigned a year after it was discovered that Yahoo had secretly created a program to scan all incoming emails for the NSA or FBI. In recent months, Stamos has been among Facebook executives willing to speak out about the company and its ongoing problems on Twitter. Over the weekend, he expressed concern about Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook information but stopped short of calling it a "data breach," as the hackers did not penetrate any systems.
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