Oyo appoints former PayU exec Prakash Padariya as cyber security head

Online hotel aggregator Oyo has announced the appointment of Prakash Padariya as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for IT and security teams. In his role Oyo, Padariya will helm a security strategy for the company’s systems globally, including regions such as India, SEA, Europe, US and the UK.

He will be also responsible for leveraging technologies such as big data analytics and artificial intelligence to enhance cyber security functions from the ground up.

Padariya’s last stint was in the Netherlands headquarters of online payment solutions provider PayU, where he was in a similar role. He has more than 19 years of experience across geographies with extensive expertise in corporate security consulting, cyber security, cyber warfare, vulnerability assessment, among others.

Besides PayU, he has worked in senior management roles across Fortune 100 MNCs like GE, Royal Bank of Scotland, IBM, Target Corporation and Accenture. At Oyo, he will directly report to Ankit Mathuria, the company’s Chief Technology Officer.

"I am super excited to join OYO at this stage where all of travel is transforming and resurging post Covid-19. I am honoured to be a part of this team and can’t wait to start developing solutions to enhance the maturity of all of Oyo’s products to the next level of security and privacy,” he said.