Meta Hires Assaf Keren as New CISO from Qualtrics and PayPal
Meta has hired Assaf Keren as its next chief information security officer (CISO), filling a vacancy created when Guy Rosen announced his departure in June after 13 years at the company. Keren joins this week from software platform Qualtrics, where he spent two years as chief security officer, and previously held the same title at PayPal. Rosen will remain as CISO through a transition period of several months before leaving later this year, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the appointment.
Keren said in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday that he would focus on building security and trust into Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) systems and underlying infrastructure. This mandate reflects how thoroughly AI has reshaped Meta’s operations since Mark Zuckerberg told employees earlier this year that the company was redirecting capital from headcount to AI infrastructure. Meta has committed up to $145 billion in capital expenditure for 2026, nearly all of it flowing to data centres, GPUs, and the systems supporting its Llama models and Superintelligence Labs.
The CISO role carries particular weight at Meta after a turbulent year for the company’s security posture. In June, hackers exploited a vulnerability in Meta’s AI-powered customer support chatbot to hijack more than 20,000 Instagram accounts, including high-profile pages linked to public figures and government organisations. Keren brings more than 25 years of cybersecurity experience, beginning with Israel’s defence forces in 2000. He founded and sold two cybersecurity companies before moving into corporate security leadership, and holds patents in security and AI technologies.
Rosen joined Meta in 2013 when it acquired his analytics startup Onavo. He held several senior roles over his tenure, including leading the company’s election integrity work after the 2016 US presidential election, and more recently overseeing the integration of AI tools into internal business operations during a November 2025 leadership reshuffle. His departure comes amid Meta’s broader restructuring that has cut roughly 8,000 jobs and reorganised thousands of employees into AI-focused teams under Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang.