Draft:Branden Spikes
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Branden Spikes | |
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| Born | December 6, 1975 |
| Occupation(s) | Technologist, entrepreneur, investor, board member |
| Known for | CIO SpaceX, Founder Spikes Security |
| Board member of | Lifeist |
| Spouse | Lindy Cestone |
Branden Spikes (born: December 6, 1975) is an American Information Technology and Security evangelist, entrepreneur, investor, and board member with a history of designing and building high performance, highly secure IT environments and systems.
Career
[edit]After 2 years of consulting work in Silicon Valley, Mr. Spikes started working with Elon Musk in 1997 as one of the first employees at Zip2 which later became PayPal in March of 2000[1]. He built and operated the Information Technology environments as the company developed a new method of end user money transfers.
In 2002, he became the fourth employee at CIO at SpaceX[2] and, as the company became the first private rocket company to reach orbit.[3]
He departed SpaceX in 2012 and founded the cybersecurity startup of Spikes Security in the Silicon Valley.[4] There his company created Isla, a secure technology for accessing the world wide web.[5][6] He successfully exited the organization as it was acquired by AurionPro/Cyberinc in 2018[7][8]
When he left Spikes Security, he became the Head of IT for Astra.
In 2019, he joined the Lifeist board and currently serves as the interim chair of the audit committee.[9]
Mr. Spikes then briefly volunteered at DOGE[10] in 2024 and 2025 and was briefly Head of IT at X (formerly known as Twitter) during its acquisition by xAI[11].
Personal Life
[edit]Mr. Spikes is a Californian native. He and his wife currently live in San Francisco California. He has two adult children from a previous marriage.
Media
[edit]Who is the DOGE and X Technician Branden Spikes, Brian Krebs (2025)[2]
The Elon Musk Show (2022)[12]
Q&A with Elon Musk's Trusted Tech Chief, Tech Open Air (2017)[13]
Bulding the Next Gen of Security Products, Pause Fest & Awards (2017)[14]
Celebrity hacking clouds Apple's upcoming product launch (2014)[15]
References
[edit]
- ^ "Reid Hoffman On PayPal's Pivoted Path To Success". Fast Company. 2012-08-10. Archived from the original on 2014-11-12. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
- ^ a b "Who is the DOGE and X Technician Branden Spikes? – Krebs on Security". 2025-03-10. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
- ^ "SpaceX Successfully Launches Falcon 1 to Orbit". www.nasa.gov. 2008-09-08. Archived from the original on 2023-08-26. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
- ^ "Former SpaceX CIO leaves the space world to protect your company from destruction". VentureBeat. 2014-10-22. Archived from the original on 2023-09-29. Retrieved 2025-12-04.
- ^ "Spikes Security Introduces Breakthrough Isla(TM) Web Malware Isolation System, Eliminating All Malware Attacks Delivered Through Web Browsers". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on 2015-12-29. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
- ^ "Spikes Security". Infosecurity Magazine. 2025-12-03. Retrieved 2025-12-04.
- ^ "Aurionpro Acquires Spikes Security, Adds Cyber Security Capabilities". Archived from the original on 2019-06-12. Retrieved 2025-11-29.
- ^ "Security Company Spikes Bought By Aurionpro". Wall Street Journal. 2016-09-16. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2025-12-04.
- ^ "Lifeist Announces Board Update". Yahoo Finance. October 20, 2025. Retrieved 2025-12-03.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Franceschi-Bicchierai, Kirsten Korosec, Zack Whittaker, Charles Rollet, Sean O'Kane, Lorenzo (2025-05-20). "The people in Elon Musk's DOGE universe". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-12-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Musk's social media firm X bought by his AI company, valued at $33 billion". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2025-03-30. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
- ^ The Elon Musk Show, 72 Films, BBC Studios, 2022-10-12, retrieved 2025-12-02
- ^ TOA (Tech Open Air) (2017-07-18). Q&A with Elon Musk's Trusted Tech Chief - Branden Spikes, (Former CIO, SpaceX) #TOA17. Retrieved 2025-12-02 – via YouTube.
- ^ Pause Fest & Awards (2017-03-05). Bulding the Next Gen of Security Products - Branden Spikes, Cyberinc. Retrieved 2025-12-02 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Celebrity hacking clouds Apple's upcoming product launch". Reuters. 2014-09-03.