Who is the DOGE and X Technician Branden Spikes?
Summary: KrebsOnSecurity profiles Branden Spikes, 49, X/Twitter's director of IT since February 2025 and a Musk hire dating to Zip2 in 1997, who says he volunteered two months in Washington helping DOGE before returning to California. The piece details his 2003 marriage to Natalia Libina, later Natalia Haldeman after a 1998 marriage to Musk's cousin Reeve Haldeman, and her registration of more than a dozen domains tied to the California Russian Association and Russian Heritage Foundation.
Why it matters: DOGE has been seizing control of computer systems and government data at agencies including the Social Security Administration, DHS, OPM and Treasury, and Spikes - whose ex-wife's charity events included a board member of the Kremlin-aligned Congress of Russian Americans - is described by sources as operating inside Musk's inner circle of trust.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
- Related
- TSMC employee data breach linked to cloud provider Cyber Risks · Nov 15, 2026Data Breach at La Poste Subsidiary Maileva Affects 22 Million People in France Cyber Risks · Nov 15, 2026City of Osaka warns of data breach impacting 1 million as Japan reels from dozens of cyber incidents Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026