Andrew Brandt is on a mission to reclaim the term “hacker” and to recruit and train up the next generation of hacker-leaders
The goal of Elect More Hackers is simple: We cannot build a more just and fair society unless our legislators and leaders understand the fundamental problems technology causes or contributes to.
Leaders who lack technical competency are vulnerable to having their opinions shaped by wealthy technology corporations and their lobbyists, whose interests and motivations are often at odds with the public’s demands for civil rights, freedom, privacy, democracy, and the rule of law.
Outside of professional life, community support
Andrew Brandt has worked in information security as a malware analyst and network forensics specialist since 2007. But outside of work, I’ve always been a political activist at heart, working to support those who need help the most.
I grew up in a union household - my father was a union leader in IATSE in the 1970s and 1980s, working as a film editor for television and movie studios in Los Angeles, and moonlighting on weekends as a professional photographer. He taught me the power of organized labor and how it benefits families who, otherwise, would spend half the year wondering where the next paycheck would come from when the TV shows he worked on were on their annual hiatus. He also taught me that volunteer work is deeply rewarding.
As a child, I worked as an extra in television and movies, and joined the Screen Actor’s Guild at age six. The good union dues I earned on these one- or two-day jobs eventually paid for a lot of my college tuition in the 1990s. I owe my professional career to organized labor.
While in college, I also enjoyed photography, and was recruited to the college newspaper. My first story corrected an injustice at the college, and resulted in a corrupt administrator being fired from their job. Once I realized how journalism could help fight for what’s right, I never looked back.
That path took me into technology journalism, which led me to the hacker community in the mid-1990s. I recognized the wonder and awe hackers I met in San Francisco had in their relationship to technology - and their innate desire to use it to help others. At Defcon, I was welcomed into that community warmly, and I have never looked back.
Andrew Brandt’s professional career
has focused on harm reduction for the vulnerable
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I fight cybercriminals
Andrew Brandt works as a malware analyst for a large, international information security provider. He views this work as a service to the wider world, preventing crime and mitigating harm to cybercrime victims.
In his role as a "principal researcher," Andrew studies how malware behaves and how cybercriminals operate. He then puts that information to work protecting people, and then informs the wider public in order to help people and organizations protect themselves.
He does that by writing blog posts, participating in producing videos and webcasts, and by giving live presentations to professional conferences, industry groups, and government agencies around the world.
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An award-winning journalist
As a journalist, Andrew is uniquely suited to knowing how to ask the questions and do the research that can get to the root cause of tough problems.
Prior to his work in cybersecurity, he was an investigative journalist and reporter for two national magazines that focused on technology; a nationally syndicated, technology-focused TV show; and a daily news reporter at the University of California at Berkeley’s Daily Californian.
He is a winner of multiple journalism awards for his consumer advocacy work; for promoting online privacy, data transparency, and the right to repair; and for teaching his readers skills to help them defend their networks and computers.
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I help people
The core of Andrew’s work comes down to helping people protect themselves against powerful, committed adversaries who wish to do them harm.
Throughout the pandemic, he worked with colleagues to help businesses and organizations of all sizes, government agencies, and educational institutions defend themselves against an onslaught of ransomware attacks targeting the most vulnerable organizations (including school districts around the US), who could least afford to pay the criminals' extortion demands.
He has focused his efforts on defending essential institutions from internet-based threats for most of his career. In his spare time, he volunteers at a technology museum and lab at CU Boulder.
