Meet Google's new security sheriff: Eschelbeck on the wilds of the internet

Google has a new sheriff in place keeping watch over the wilds of the internet.

Austrian-born Gerhard Eschelbeck has ranged the British city of Oxford; cavorted at notorious Def Con hacker conclaves, wrangled a herd of start-ups, and camped out in Silicon Valley.

He now holds the reins of security and privacy for all things Google. In an interview, Eschelbeck spoke of using Google's massive scope to protect users from cybervillains such as spammers and state-sponsored spies.

"The size of our computing infrastructure allows us to process, analyse, and research the changing threat landscape and look ahead to predict what is coming," Eschelbeck said during his first one-on-one press interview in his new post.

"Security is obviously a constant race; the key is how far can you look ahead." he said. Eschelbeck took charge of Google's 500-strong security and privacy team early this year, returning to Silicon Valley after running engineering for a computer security company in Oxford for two years.

Google's range of global services and products means there are many fronts for a security expert to defend. Google's size also means there are arsenals of powerful computer servers for defenders to employ and large-scale data from which to discern cyberdangers.