Interview: Shopify CISO Andrew Dunbar on Securing an E-Commerce Giant

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/interviews/interview-shopify-ciso-andrew/

Publish Date: 2026-06-24 04:00:00

Source Domain: www.infosecurity-magazine.com

Andrew Dunbar was one of the first hundred employees to join Shopify, the Canadian multinational e-commerce company, when he joined in 2012. In the years since, he has worked his way up to lead the cybersecurity operation at Shopify as CISO.

Today, Shopify has expanded to over 7600 employees as it supports retailers and brands around the world with their online and point-of-sale services.

Global brands including Huel, Gymshark and Victoria Beckham’s fashion label are some of Shopify’s high-profile customers, while the platform is also used by millions of independent sellers and retailers.

Andrew Dunbar, CISO, Shopify

For Dunbar, that means he isn’t just responsible for securing Shopify’s internal ecosystem, he also must ensure that the company’s products, which aid retailers with building websites and selling their wares, are safe against evolving cyber threats.

In this conversation with Infosecurity, Dunbar detailed how his ‘engineer first’ approach has helped Shopify manage cybersecurity as it has grown, how the company balances innovating using AI with cybersecurity needs and the benefits of the firm’s bug bounty program.

Infosecurity Magazine: How do you approach cybersecurity at Shopify?

Andrew Dunbar: Our company has always been very engineering driven, the person who wrote the first lines of code is our CEO and that extends throughout our organization.

I’m engineer myself and building out the security organization, making sure we do it from an engineering first perspective, is something that we have always prioritized.

The amazing thing we’re seeing right now is that the barrier to entry with AI has become so low that we are now seeing it across every role at Shopify: writing code, building apps, building workflows. This has become a huge unlock in the space of security specifically, but more broadly across the entire company.

IM: How has AI changed how you approach cybersecurity?

AD: On the…

Source