Jacob Appelbaum

Jacob Appelbaum is an American independent journalist, computer security researcher, and hacker. Appelbaum, who earned his PhD from the Eindhoven University of Technology, first became notable for his work as a core member of the Tor Project, a free software network designed to provide online anonymity. Appelbaum collaborated with WikiLeaks and made journalistic contributions at Der Spiegel based on the NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden that brought him widespread recognition. He stood in for Julian Assange at computer security and hacker forums when Assange could no longer travel to the United States. Under the pseudonym "ioerror", Appelbaum was an active member of the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective from 2008 to 2016. He was the co-founder of the San Francisco hackerspace Noisebridge with Mitch Altman. He worked for the internet pornography company Kink.com and Greenpeace and volunteered for the Ruckus Society and the Rainforest Action Network. He was on the Technical Advisory Board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.