Webroot, the first Internet security service company, today announced the appointment of Jacques Erasmus as the company’s first chief information security officer. With extensive expertise in threat research, information assurance and computer security incident response, Erasmus oversees data security operations across the business, including development, implementation and compliance.

“As a cloud security leader, Webroot knows better than anyone that today’s complex risks require businesses to take a proactive, highly focused approach toward protection,” said Dick Williams, CEO, Webroot. “Jacques’ deep technical knowledge of enterprise architectures and emerging threat vectors make him the ideal person to oversee these efforts at Webroot; he will be instrumental in assuring the security of our company’s information assets and systems, and ensuring compliance across all of our offices worldwide.”

Erasmus brings to the role more than a decade of technical expertise, including nine years leading malware detection efforts at Webroot and Prevx, which was acquired by Webroot in 2010. He has led incident response and PCI-DSS activities for many large companies worldwide and discovered a number of high-profile threats and breaches. His studies in behavior-based threat protection and cloud-based technology systems provide a key source of input across product development and threat research. 

Prior to Webroot, Erasmus served as a senior-level consultant for Sun Microsystems where he advised on server ranges, security and backup infrastructure. Erasmus also worked as a third-party consultant performing penetration testing for a number of South Africa's largest companies.

Erasmus has earned numerous information systems certifications in his career, most notably CISSP and CISM certifications. In 2009 the British Computer Society named him "Young IT Professional of the Year” for his work to enhance malicious code research and raise public awareness of malware.