Patreon Cuts Its Security Team

Patreon, the net platform that permits content material creators to foster a direct subscriber base, has laid off 5 staff accountable for its safety engineering. The firm confirmed the employee cuts in an electronic mail to Gizmodo on Friday.

“As part of a strategic shift of a portion of our security program, we have parted ways with five employees,” stated Patreon in an emailed assertion attributed to the corporate’s U.S. coverage head, Ellen Satterwhite.

Patreon is common amongst creators like podcasters, writers, and artists and their followers. Site customers or “patrons” can join one time and recurring funds to makers that permit them to assist their favorites in alternate for unique content material or different rewards.

Emily Metcalfe, previously a safety and privateness engineer at Patreon, and one of many laid-off staff described the reduce as affecting all the inside safety group. “I and the rest of the Patreon Security Team are no longer with the company,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post asserting that she is now on the lookout for a brand new job.

Although Patreon disputed that description. The subscription platform wrote that “a majority of our engineers working on security and vendors remain in place.” In response to additional questions, Satterwhite additionally stated “the entire internal Patreon security team was not laid off. As a matter of policy, we can’t share the exact number of Patreon employees working on security, but can confirm a majority of Patreon’s internal engineers working on security remain in place.”

Patreon additionally declined to reply questions on why they let go of a number of safety engineers. Satterwhite famous that “we also partner with a number of external organizations to continuously develop our security capabilities and conduct regular security assessments.” The reference to “external organizations” seemingly means that the corporate has outsourced a lot of its safety operations.

“As a global platform, we will always prioritize the security of our creators’ and customers’ data,” wrote Satterwhite. “The changes made this week will have no impact on our ability to continue providing a secure and safe platform for our creators and patrons.”

Patreon has beforehand confronted at the least one main safety breach. In 2015, hackers accessed and dumped 13.7 gigabytes of the corporate’s knowledge (together with creator and person knowledge, supply code, and login data).

The platform started 2022 with about 400 staff, however advised TechCrunch in December 2021 that it hoped to double in measurement inside a 12 months—particularly specializing in its product, engineering, and design sectors. It’s unclear how the safety layoffs match into that growth technique.

That stated, 2022 has been a tough 12 months for plenty of tech firms thus far. Layoffs abound at smaller startups, well-established manufacturers, and even at Silicon Valley giants. Thousands of jobs have been slashed thus far, following years of speedy, unfettered progress.