Bryan Cunningham

As the first Executive Director of UCI’s multidisciplinary Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute, Cunningham is focused on solution-oriented strategies address technical, legal and policy challenges to combat cyber threats, protect individual privacy and civil liberties, maintain public safety and economic and national security and empower Americans to take better control of their digital security.

Cunningham is a leading international expert on cybersecurity law and policy, a former White House lawyer and adviser and a media commentator on cybersecurity, technology and surveillance issues. He has appeared on Bloomberg, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and other networks.

Cunningham has extensive experience in senior U.S. government intelligence and law enforcement positions. He served as Deputy Legal Adviser to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. He also served six years in the Clinton Administration as a senior CIA officer and federal prosecutor. He drafted significant portions of the Homeland Security Act and related legislation, helping to shepherd them through Congress. He was a principal contributor to the first National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, worked closely with the 9/11 Commission and provided legal advice to the President, National Security Advisor, the National Security Council, and other senior government officials on intelligence, terrorism, cyber security and other related matters.