Staples hires its very first CISO

Staples has hired its first chief information security officer (CISO), a key new member of the office supply giant's team that combines traditional IT and digital transformation.

Staples

CISO Brett Wahlin, who will report to the company's CTO, will be responsible for enterprise-wide information, product and data security during a time in which Staples looks to expand its delivery business.  His responsibilities extend into areas such as connected devices (think Amazon Echo/Google Home digital assistant competition in the office), fraud and loss prevention. 

Staples has not been immune to data breaches — the company in late 2014 disclosed an infiltration that may have affected more than 1.1 million payment cards as a result of malware installed on point-of-sale systems at its stores.

Wahlin joins Staples from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), where he served as vice president and CISO. 

Previously, Wahlin was Chief Security Officer (CSO) for Sony Network Entertainment International and CSO at McAfee. He has also been CISO at Los Alamos National Laboratory and VP of security architecture for Wells Fargo. He began his career as a counterintelligence agent in the U.S. Army.