Jake Braun

Jacob “Jake” H. Braun (October 3, 1975) is an American political, cyber and national security expert.  He is currently an instructor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies where he teaches courses on cyber policy and election security and serves as the Executive Director for the University of Chicago Harris Cyber Policy Initiative (CPI).

From 2009 to 2011, Braun served as White House Liaison to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He has also served on multiple political campaigns, including as National Deputy Field Director for Obama for America in 2008 and as the Michigan Field Director for John Kerry in 2004.

Mr. Braun is also co-founder of the DEF CON Voting Machine Hacking Village, hosted annually at DEF CON, the largest hacker conference in the world.

Braun is the former CEO of Cambridge Global Advisors (CGA), a bipartisan consulting firm based in Washington, DC, that he co-founded in 2013 along with former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Deputy Cabinet Secretary Jane Holl Lute and Christopher Burnham, former Under Secretary General of the United Nations for Management.

Braun serves as Executive Director for the University of Chicago Harris Cyber Policy Initiative, housed within the Harris School of Public Policy, where he works at the center of politics, technology, and national security to advance the field of cyber policy. He also teaches a course on cybersecurity at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

Braun was appointed to his position of White House Liaison to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on January 21, 2009. Prior to his appointment, Braun served on the Presidential Transition Team in 2008-2009 for the Obama Administration as Deputy Director for the National Security Agencies Review, which oversaw the agency review process for the State Department, DOD, DHS, CIA, USAID and others.

During his tenure at DHS, Braun advised department leadership on policy, strategy and strategic communications.  He worked with local law enforcement on domestic counter-terrorism policy, helped plan the Department’s early global marketing efforts to promote the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)’s  Global Entry Program, and oversaw the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) Southwest Border Task Force policy development and report. Braun also oversaw strategic communications in the Gulf for DHS and the White House during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill and he worked directly on the passage of the 2011 Passenger Name Record (PNR) Agreement, one of the largest international agreements in history to enhance national security data sharing and address privacy concerns between the United States and the European Union.

Braun is a Democratic political consultant and has decades of high-level campaign experience.  He worked on multiple U.S. presidential, federal, statewide, and local campaigns for Democratic and progressive candidates. He has also worked with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and multiple state Democratic Party committees. Internationally, Braun has advised presidential political campaigns in Nigeria, Tunisia, Mexico and Indonesia.

From 2007 to 2008, Braun served as the National Deputy Field Director to the 2008 Obama for America Campaign, where he oversaw all field organizing efforts and integration of social media, targeting and traditional communication platforms into the national grassroots effort.  Braun previously oversaw the field program for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign in Michigan and worked extensively in Iowa during the 2004 presidential primary.

Since his tenure in the Obama Administration, Braun has spent the majority of his professional career on cybersecurity issues. During his service at DHS, Braun worked on the development and implementation of the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Task Force on CyberSkills.  He also currently serves in the President’s Circle on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and as a strategic advisor to the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon on cybersecurity.He has worked with the Pentagon to develop and deploy lightweight cyber training capabilities, most notably a “Capture the Packet” simulator.  His courses at the Harris School include "Cyber Security in the Digital Age" and "The Intersection of Cyber Threats and Human Rights."

DEF CON

In 2017, following intelligence reports highlighting Russian hacking attempts and interference in the 2016 presidential election, Braun was credited with co-founding the inaugural Voting Machine Hacking Village (Voting Village) at DEF CON, the world’s largest and longest-running hacker conference. The event featured voting equipment used in federal, state and local U.S. elections and made them available to white-hat hackers and cyber researchers for the purpose of education, experimentation, and to demonstrate the cyber vulnerabilities of such equipment.  The event was renewed in 2018 and 2019 and featured additional components of U.S. election infrastructure including the hacking of mock Secretary of State websites.In cooperation with DEF CON, Braun has co-authored two award-winning and seminal works on election infrastructure cyber vulnerabilities, The DEF CON 25 and 26 Voting Village Reports.  

On February 13, 2018, in a hearing titled “Defending Our Democracy: Building Partnerships to Protect America’s Elections,” Braun testified before the U.S. House Homeland Committee on his election security work with CPI and DEF CON.

As the former Chief Executive Officer for Cambridge Global Advisors, Braun focused on cyber and national security clients and programs. He has worked with a variety of Fortune 500 companies, non-profit NGOs, government and international clients. As of 2018, CGA was advising the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on policy, workforce development and other cybersecurity issues. The company also works with the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on cyber security and communications programs. Braun also served as Managing Director of Cambridge Global Capital where he identifies investment opportunities and raises capital for cybersecurity and other start-up companies.

Jake is a graduate of Troy St. University where he earned an MA in International Relations. He also has a Master’s in Secondary Education from National Louis University in Chicago and a BA in Philosophy from Loyola University of Chicago.  

In 2018, Braun was the Gold winner for North American Cybersecurity Educator of the Year and Bronze winner for the North American Cybersecurity Consultant of the Year Awards from Cybersecurity Excellence Awards. Along with the team that wrote the DEF CON Voting Village report, including DEF CON Founder Jeff Moss, Braun was also Gold winner for the Cybersecurity Project of the Year and finalist for the award for Cybersecurity Team of the Year.