Twitter security chief Michael Coates is leaving to launch a startup

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• Twitter security chief Michael Coates is leaving the company after three years.
• He's leaving to start his own security startup.
• Joseph Camilleri, senior manager of information security and risk, will be his interim replacement.

Michael Coates, Twitter's chief information security officer, is leaving the company after three years in the role.

Coates announced the move in a tweet on Wednesday, saying that he was leaving Twitter to cofound a security startup. A longtime executive in the security industry who once worked at Mozilla, Coates noted on Twitter that he announced his departure internally a few weeks ago. 

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed Coates' departure to Business Insider.

According to The Verge, Coates' interim replacement will be Joseph Camilleri, a senior manager for information security and risk who has been with the company since May 2016.

Coates' move represents the second report this week of a chief security officer leaving an internet company, though the circumstances do not appear to be related  Facebook's Alex Stamos is set to leave the company in August due to disagreements with Facebook executives over the handling of misinformation spread on the social network during the 2016 presidential election. 

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