Samir Jain is the Vice President of Policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT). He leads CDT’s policy advocacy, strategy, and policy teams. He has testified before Congress on privacy, AI, and cybersecurity, and represents CDT before the Executive Branch, Congress, regulatory agencies, states, industry, and national and international media outlets.
Before joining CDT, Samir served in the Obama Administration as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice and as Senior Director for Cybersecurity Policy at the White House National Security Council. In these roles, he advised senior leadership at the White House and DOJ on cybersecurity and technology policy; coordinated development of cybercrime and privacy legislation and policy in areas such as encryption and electronic surveillance; managed responses to significant cyber incidents; and led the team responsible for international engagements on issues such as cyber norms and cyber-enabled intellectual property theft. He was a primary architect of the Presidential Policy Directive on United States Cyber Incident Coordination and played a key role in developing the Executive Order authorizing sanctions for malicious cyber-enabled activities.
Samir was also a partner at the law firms of WilmerHale and Jones Day. He played a lead role in landmark cases including Zeran v. America Online, which established the broad scope of Section 230’s protections for online platforms from liability for third-party content. His practice also encompassed cybersecurity risk management and breach response, domestic and global privacy compliance, FTC and state Attorney General investigations, telecom regulation, and issues at the intersection of technology, law enforcement, and national security.
Samir serves on advisory boards for American University’s Tech Law & Security program, the Future of Privacy Forum, and various companies. He previously served on the Education Advisory Board for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and taught Internet law at George Washington University Law School. He holds a B.S. from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
CDT VP Testifies on State and Local Cybersecurity Threats and the Federal Retreat
On May 21, 2026, CDT Vice President of Policy Samir Jain testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection on the cybersecurity threats facing state and local governments.
