In Brief: Microsoft Dumps Security Evangelist

Microsoft's senior security strategist, Steve Riley, has been made redundant.

After more than 10 years working for Microsoft, Riley fell the victim to a restructuring program last Tuesday. "As a part of Microsoft’s second round of restructuring, my position was eliminated yesterday and my employment with Microsoft has ended," Riley wrote on his blog. "I'm certainly not disappearing... I'll remain involved in the security industry."

According to his official bio, Riley first joined Microsoft's Consulting Services Group in 1998 before he gravitated towards the company's security consulting practice. Until last Wednesday he'd been working for the company's Trustworthy Computing Group.

UPDATE: Microsoft provided the following response:

"We can't provide comment on specific job redundancies.

As you know, in January, Microsoft announced steps the company is taking to increase efficiency and reduce costs, which included job eliminations, slowing of headcount growth, changes to compensation and other operational spending cuts.

As a continuation of that plan, last week further jobs were eliminated in several areas across the company such as R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT, as well as, positions in support, consulting, operations, billing, manufacturing, and data center operations.

While job eliminations are always difficult, we are taking the necessary actions to manage our business appropriately in today's economic climate.

Even in the face of these challenges, we remain confident that we are well-positioned as a company to emerge from this crisis even stronger."