Yassir Abousselham

Chief Security Officer

Yassir Abousselham was the Chief Security Officer at Okta. As CSO, Yassir was responsible for upholding the highest level of security standards for both Okta’s business and customers.

Prior to Okta, Yassir served as Chief Information Security Officer at SoFi, managing the company's information security, privacy and technical compliance. Yassir also founded and built the corporate data security and payments security programs at Google, and spent over a decade at Ernst & Young, consulting for Fortune 500 companies as they built information security functions, secure infrastructure and worked to achieve regulatory compliance.

Yassir earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration, as well as a master’s degree in computer information systems. He has two U.S. patents in trusted network communication.

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How Okta Protects You Against Identity Attacks

From Okta’s position at the “front door” of many organizations, we tend to see a significant number of authentication-related cyber attacks. This presents a real risk to organizations, especially when exacerbated by poor password habits. As we detailed in our 2019 Businesses at Work report, 40% of survey respondents reported using only 2-4…

Password spraying detection: Where do I start?

Password spraying has been one of the hottest topics in cyber security in the last few years. Right off the heels of multiple high-profile breaches, it’s been getting a lot of attention from security vendors, reporters, and the security community as a whole. In this post, we’ll discuss why password spraying is increasing in prevalence, and steps…

When People Are the Perimeter, We Need a Zero Trust Approach to Security

Data is the new oil—an observation not lost on hackers. In a world of growing interconnectivity, our most valuable digital assets—including our digital identities–have never been so exposed. After all, attackers of the digital age now simply log in, using stolen credentials to gain access to protected documents and privileged information. Relying…

Security Innovation + Collaboration to Keep Threats at Bay

Millions of people rely on Okta to connect them to the technologies and services that enable them to do their most important work — and as a result, we make every decision with our customers in mind. How do we implement cutting-edge security solutions to manage our customers’ technology risks and keep their identities secure? It’s clear we’re not…

What You Need to Know About Today's SAML Vulnerability Research

Today security researchers announced they found a vulnerability in some SAML implementations that threat actors could use to bypass primary authentication, potentially elevating permissions or impersonating privileged accounts. We were made aware of the vulnerability before the public disclosure and immediately patched it. Okta is not vulnerable,…

GDPR: We’re ready, are you?

Next May, the long-awaited General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is already in effect, becomes enforceable in the EU. In reality though, its effect will be felt worldwide. Any company holding the personal data of EU individuals will have to ensure they’re compliant. The penalties for breaching the legislation can be high, with fines of…

Why I Joined Okta: Security In The Innovation Age

With a few weeks under my belt, I’m thrilled to share that I’ve joined Okta as Chief Security Officer. From its founding, Okta’s leadership team has invested in building a world-class security program, and I’m looking forward to continuing their commitment to putting customer security first. Over the past two decades, I’ve had the privilege of…