At 49, Branden Spikes<\/strong> isn\u2019t just one of the oldest technologists who has been involved in Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency<\/strong> (DOGE). As the current director of information technology at X\/Twitter<\/strong> and an early hire at PayPal<\/strong>, Zip2<\/strong>, Tesla<\/strong> and SpaceX<\/strong>, Spikes is also among Musk\u2019s most loyal employees. Here\u2019s a closer look at this trusted Musk lieutenant, whose Russian ex-wife was once married to Elon\u2019s cousin.<\/p>\n The profile of Branden Spikes on X.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When President Trump took office again in January, he put the world\u2019s richest man \u2014 Elon Musk \u2014 in charge of the U.S. Digital Service<\/strong>, and renamed the organization as DOGE. The group is reportedly staffed by at least 50 technologists<\/a>, many of whom have ties to Musk\u2019s companies.<\/p>\n DOGE has been enabling the president\u2019s ongoing mass layoffs and firings of federal workers, largely by seizing control over computer systems and government data for a multitude of federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Treasury Department.<\/p>\n It is difficult to find another person connected to DOGE who has stronger ties to Musk than Branden Spikes. A native of California, Spikes initially teamed up with Musk in 1997 as a lead systems engineer for the software company Zip2, the first major venture for Musk. In 1999, Spikes was hired as director of IT at PayPal, and in 2002 he became just the fourth person hired at SpaceX.<\/p>\n In 2012, Spikes launched Spikes Security<\/strong>, a software product that sought to create a compartmentalized or \u201csandboxed\u201d web browser that could insulate the user from malware attacks. A review of spikes.com in the Wayback Machine shows that as far back as 1998, Musk could be seen joining Spikes for team matches in the online games Quake and Quake II. In 2016, Spikes Security was merged with another security suite called Aurionpro, with the combined company renamed Cyberinc.<\/p>\n A snapshot of spikes.com from 1998 shows Elon Musk\u2019s profile in Spike\u2019s clan for the games Quake and Quake II.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spikes\u2019s LinkedIn profile<\/a> says he was appointed head of IT at X in February 2025. And although his name shows up on none of the lists of DOGE employees circulated by various media outlets, multiple sources told KrebsOnSecurity that Spikes was working with DOGE and operates within Musk\u2019s inner circle of trust.<\/p>\n In a conversation with KrebsOnSecurity, Spikes said he is dedicated to his country and to saving it from what he sees as certain ruin.<\/p>\n \u201cMyself, I was raised by a southern conservative family in California and I strongly believe in America and her future,\u201d Spikes said. \u201cThis is why I volunteered for two months in DC recently to help DOGE save us from certain bankruptcy.\u201d<\/p>\n Spikes told KrebsOnSecurity that he recently decided to head back home and focus on his job as director of IT at X.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved it, but ultimately I did not want to leave my hometown and family back in California,\u201d Spikes said of his tenure at DOGE. \u201cAfter a couple of months it became clear that to continue helping I would need to move to DC and commit a lot more time, so I politely bowed out.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to founding Spikes Security, Branden Spikes was married to a native Russian woman named Natalia<\/strong> whom he\u2019d met at a destination wedding in South America in 2003.<\/p>\n Branden and Natalia\u2019s names are both on the registration records for the domain name orangetearoom[.]com<\/strong>. This domain, which DomainTools.com says was originally registered by Branden in 2009, is the home of a tax-exempt charity in Los Angeles called the California Russian Association<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Here is a photo from a 2011 event organized by the California Russian Association, showing Branden and Natalia at one of its \u201cWhite Nights\u201d charity fundraisers:<\/p>\n Branden and Natalia Spikes, on left, in 2011. The man on the far right is Ivan Y. Podvalov, a board member of the Kremlin-aligned Congress of Russian Americans (CRA). The man in the center is Feodor Yakimoff, director of operations at the Transib Global Sourcing Group, and chairman of the Russian Imperial Charity Balls, which works in concert with the Russian Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2011, the Spikes couple got divorced, and Natalia changed her last name to Haldeman. That is not her maiden name, which appears to be \u201cLibina.\u201d Rather, Natalia acquired the surname Haldeman in 1998, when she married Elon Musk\u2019s cousin.<\/p>\n Reeve Haldeman<\/strong> is the son of Scott Haldeman<\/strong>, who is the brother of Elon Musk\u2019s mother, Maye Musk<\/strong>. Divorce records show Reeve and Natalia officially terminated<\/a> their marriage in 2007. Reeve Haldeman did not respond to a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n A review of other domain names connected to Natalia Haldeman\u2019s email address show she has registered more than a dozen domains over the years that are tied to the California Russian Association, and an apparently related entity called the Russian Heritage Foundation, Inc.<\/strong>:<\/p>\n russianamericans.org Ms. Haldeman did not respond to requests for comment. Her name and contact information appears in the registration records for these domains dating back to 2010, and a document<\/a> published by ProPublica<\/em> show that by 2016 Natalia Haldeman was appointed CEO of the California Russian Foundation.<\/p>\n The domain name that bears both Branden\u2019s and Natalia\u2019s names \u2014 orangeteamroom.com \u2014 features photos of Ms. Haldeman at fundraising events for the Russian foundation through 2014. Additional photos of her and many of the same people can be seen through 2023 at another domain she registered in 2010 \u2014 russianheritagefoundation.com<\/strong>.<\/p>\n A photo from Natalia Haldeman\u2019s Facebook page shows her mother (left) pictured with Maye Musk, Elon Musk\u2019s mother, in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The photo of Branden and Natalia above is from one such event in 2011 (tied to russianwhitenights.org, another Haldeman domain). The person on the right in that image \u2014 Ivan Y. Podvalov<\/strong> \u2014 appears in many fundraising event photos published by the foundation over the past decade. Podvalov is a board member of the Congress of Russian Americans<\/strong> (CRA), a nonprofit group that is known for vehemently opposing U.S. financial and legal sanctions against Russia.<\/p>\n Writing for The Insider<\/em> in 2022, journalist Diana Fishman<\/strong> described how the CRA has engaged in outright political lobbying, noting that the organization in June 2014 sent a letter to President Obama and the secretary of the United Nations, calling for an end to the \u201clarge-scale US intervention in Ukraine and the campaign to isolate Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe US military contingents must be withdrawn immediately from the Eastern European region, and NATO\u2019s enlargement efforts and provocative actions against Russia must cease,\u201d the message read.<\/p>\n The Insider said the CRA director sent another two letters, this time to President Donald Trump, in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cOne was a request not to sign a law expanding sanctions against Russia,\u201d Fishman wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe other regretted the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the United States and urged not to jump to conclusions on Moscow\u2019s involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.\u201d<\/p>\n The nonprofit tracking website CauseIQ.com reports<\/a> that The Russian Heritage Foundation, Inc. is now known as Constellation of Humanity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Russian Heritage Foundation and the California Russian Association both promote the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church<\/a>. This page<\/a> indexed by Archive.org from russiancalifornia.org shows The California Russian Foundation organized a community effort to establish an Orthodox church in Orange County, Calif.<\/p>\n A press release from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia<\/strong> (ROCOR) shows that in 2021 the Russian Heritage Foundation donated money<\/a> to organize a conference for the Russian Orthodox Church in Serbia.<\/p>\n A review of the \u201cPartners<\/a>\u201d listed on the Spikes\u2019 jointly registered domain \u2014 orangetearoom.com \u2014 shows the organization worked with a marketing company called Russian American Media<\/strong>. Reporting by KrebsOnSecurity last year<\/a> showed that Russian American Media also partners with the problematic people-search service Radaris<\/strong>, which was formed by two native Russian brothers in Massachusetts who have built a fleet of consumer data brokers and Russian affiliate programs.<\/p>\n When asked about his ex-wife\u2019s history, Spikes said she has a good heart and bears no ill-will toward anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cI attended several of Natalia\u2019s social events over the years we were together and can assure you that she\u2019s got the best intentions with those,\u201d Spikes told KrebsOnSecurity. \u201cThere\u2019s no funny business going on. It is just a way for those friendly immigrants to find resources amongst each other to help get settled in and chase the American dream. I mean, they\u2019re not unlike the immigrants from other countries who come to America and try to find each other and help each other find others who speak the language and share in the building of their businesses here in America.\u201d<\/p>\n Spikes said his own family roots go back deeply into American history, sharing that his 6th great grandfather was Alexander Hamilton on his mom\u2019s side, and Jessie James on his dad\u2019s side.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family roots are about as American as you can get,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve also been entrusted with building and safeguarding Elon\u2019s companies since 1999 and have a keen eye (as you do) for bad actors, so have enough perspective to tell you that Natalia has no bad blood and that she loves America.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, this perspective comes from someone who has the utmost regard for the interests of the \u201cspecial government employee\u201d Mr. Musk, who has been bragging about tossing entire federal agencies into the \u201cwood chipper,\u201d and who recently wielded an actual chainsaw<\/a> on stage while referring to it as the \u201cchainsaw for bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cElon\u2019s intentions are good and you can trust him,\u201d Spikes assured.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/krebsonsecurity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/x-spikes.png?resize=591%2C533&ssl=1\")
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\nrussianamericanstoday.com
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\nthegoldentearoom.com
\ntherussianheritagefoundation.org
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