The hire is a move to strengthen Sony's defenses after more than 90 million Sony user accounts across the company's online services were breached earlier this year.

Before working at the federal government, Reitinger was Microsoft Corp.'s chief trustworthy infrastructure strategist "where he was responsible for improving IT protection and security while coordinating closely with government agencies and private partners in order to build trustworthy computing systems worldwide," according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

Reitinger will take a similar role at Sony and be "responsible for assuring the security of Sony's information assets and services," the company said in a statement. "He will oversee information security, privacy and internet safety across the company, coordinating closely with key headquarters groups and working in partnership with the information security community to bring the best ideas and approaches to Sony."