Starburst appoints former Datadog security leader as CISO

Starburst has moved to strengthen its security leadership team with the appointment of Paras Malhotra as its new chief information security officer (CISO).

A seasoned industry leader, Malhotra joins the enterprise intelligence vendor with more than 20 years’ experience spanning cybersecurity, compliance, privacy, and risk management across high-growth SaaS and cloud organizations.

In his new role as CISO, he will lead Starburst’s information security, governance, risk and compliance (GRC), and product security functions across both its SaaS and on-premises offerings.

The firm said he will work closely with engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to strengthen its security posture and support its growing focus on AI and data security.

In an announcement, Starburst’s senior vice president of engineering and security Jitender Aswani said Malhotra’s experience will be a key asset as the company looks to meet customers’ evolving AI and data security needs.

“As enterprises scale AI and modernise their data infrastructure, security and trust have never been more critical,” he commented. “Paras brings deep experience building and scaling security programs for some of the world’s leading cloud and SaaS companies.

“His leadership will help ensure Starburst continues to deliver the secure, enterprise-grade platform our customers need to power their most important data and AI initiatives.”

Malhotra joins Starburst from Datadog, where he served as senior director of information security. During his time in that role, he led the company’s information security organization, placing a particular focus on customer trust, proactive risk management, and continuous security monitoring to support growth across commercial and enterprise markets.

Prior to that, he spent almost a decade in senior security leadership roles at Amazon Web Services (AWS), including principal manager for AWS Security Assurance.

During his time at the cloud giant, he led engineering strategy and security assurance initiatives aimed at improving vulnerability detection, risk assessment, and compliance processes at enterprise scale.

According to Starburst, Malhotra’s experience in building scalable security programs and engineering teams will help the business balance innovation with customer trust and regulatory compliance.

Commenting on his new role, Malhotra said Starburst is well-positioned to help organizations navigate today’s increasingly sophisticated threats as they implement new AI technologies at speed.

“Starburst sits at the center of some of the most important enterprise data and AI initiatives in the world,” he explained. “I’m excited to join the company at this pivotal moment and help strengthen the security, privacy, and governance foundations that enable customers to innovate with confidence.”

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