Gidon Gershinsky is a Data Security Architect with nine years of industry experience and a long research pedigree (MSc/PhD, Weizmann Institute) who designs and implements secure analytics and encrypted data systems for enterprise and cloud. He leads data security efforts at Apple and is an active Apache committer and PMC member for Parquet, having driven modular encryption standards and practical AES-GCM/CTR implementations across Parquet, Arrow and Iceberg. His work spans hands-on C++/Java crypto engineering, KMS integrations and documenting Thrift specs—contributions that enabled encrypted Parquet and Avro workflows used in major open-source ecosystems. Previously at IBM Research he translated novel high-throughput messaging and HA architectures into market-leading financial products, pairing deep systems research with production delivery. Based in Haifa, he combines academic rigor with a pragmatic focus on interoperable, standards-driven security for large-scale analytics.
9 years of coding experience
23 years of employment as a software developer
MSc, PhD, MSc, PhD at Weizmann Institute of Science
Contributions:18 reviews, 13 commits, 22 PRs in 2 years
Contributions summary:Gidon contributed to the Apache Parquet format by modifying the Thrift definitions. Their work involved introducing and updating various metadata structures related to encryption, including `AesGcmV1`, `AesGcmCtrV1`, `ColumnCryptoMetaData`, and `FileCryptoMetaData`. They also refactored existing Thrift structures by moving `iv_prefix` and making fields optional to support features like hidden columns. Further updates included changes to comments describing the CRC calculation process.
Contributions:94 reviews, 10 commits, 40 PRs in 3 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Gidon primarily contributed to the Apache Parquet Java project by implementing and refining encryption features. Their work included merging encryption branches, developing crypto packages, and creating key tools. They also made changes to handle key encryption configurations, and they contributed to improving remote KMS client integrations. These contributions enhanced the security features of the Parquet format within the project.
avroparquetapachebig-dataapache-parquet
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