Roberto Abraham Scaruffi: Jacob Appelbaum

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Jacob Appelbaum


Jacob Appelbaum

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Jacob Appelbaum
Jacob Appelbaum-IMG 9320.jpg
Jacob Appelbaum at the Congress on Privacy & Surveillance (2013) of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
Born1983
CitizenshipUS
FieldsComputer security
InstitutionsUniversity of Washington,[1]
Noisebridge,[2]
WikiLeaks
Known forComputer security
former spokesperson forWikiLeaks
Cult of the Dead Cow
spokesperson and developer[1]for The Tor Project[3]
Jacob Appelbaum is an American independent computer security researcher and hacker. He was employed by the University of Washington, and is a core member of the Tor project,[4] a free software network designed to provide online anonymity. Appelbaum is known for representing WikiLeaks at the 2010 HOPEconference.[5] He has subsequently been repeatedly targeted by US law enforcement agencies, who obtained a court order for his Twitter account data, detained him 12[6] times at the US border after trips abroad, and seized a laptop and several mobile phones.
He is currently living in Berlin and he has been contributing extensively in the selection for publication of documents revealed by Edward Snowden in June 2013.[7][8][9][10][11]
On December 28, 2013, at Chaos Communication Congress,[10][12] he presented documents revealed by Snowden, showing that the NSA can turn iPhones into eavesdropping tools and has developed devices to harvest electronic information from computer even if not online. The devices are listed in the NSA ANT catalog, published in part by Der Spiegel[9] and in full by LeakSource.[13]
Appelbaum, under the handle "ioerror", has been an active member of the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective since 2008,[14] and is the co-founder of the San Francisco hackerspace Noisebridge with Mitch Altman. He has worked for Kink.com,[15] Greenpeace[16] and has volunteered for the Ruckus Society and theRainforest Action Network.[17] He is also an ambassador for the art group monochrom.[18]
As a trusted confidant of the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Appelbaum was among several people who gained access to Snowden's top secret documents that were released during the 2013 global surveillance disclosure.[19]

Early life and education[edit]

Appelbaum is a high school dropout.[20]

Research and activism[edit]

In 2005, Appelbaum gave two talks at the 22nd Chaos Communication Congress,[21] Personal Experiences: Bringing Technology and New Media to Disaster Areas, and A Discussion About Modern Disk Encryption Systems. The former covered his travels to Iraq—crossing the border by foot, the installing of Internet satellites in Kurdistan, and his visit of New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. The latter talk discussed the legal and technical aspects of full disk encryption. At the 2006 23rd Chaos Communication Congress, he gave a talk with Ralf-Philipp Weinmann titled Unlocking FileVault: An Analysis of Apple's Encrypted Disk Storage System.[22][23] The duo subsequently released the VileFault free software program which broke Apple'sFileVault security.[24]
Appelbaum has also collaborated on several other high-profile research projects, including the cold boot attack,[25][26] SSL certificate authorities[27] and smart parking meters.[28]
He appeared with Julian Assange on Episode 8 & 9 of The World Tomorrow, "Cypherpunks".[29][30]
He is a contributor to Julian Assange's 2012 book Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet along with Andy Müller-Maguhn and Jérémie Zimmermann.
He regards Tor as a "part of an ecosystem of software that helps people regain and reclaim their autonomy. It helps to enable people to have agency of all kinds; it helps others to help each other and it helps you to help yourself. It runs, it is open and it is supported by a large community spread across all walks of life." [31]
Jacob Appelbaum at a talk at 30C3 in Hamburg (2013).
In August 2013, Appelbaum delivered Edward Snowden's acceptance speech after he was awarded the biannual Whistleblower Prize by a group of NGOs at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.[32][33]
In September 2013, he testified before the European Parliament, mentioning that his partner had been spied on by men in night-vision goggles as she slept.[34]
Appelbaum talks at the protest march Freiheit statt Angst (engl. Freedom not fear) in Berlin (2013).
In December 2013, Appelbaum told Berliner Zeitung that he believes he was under surveillance and that somebody broke into his Berlin apartment and used his computer.[35]
Appelbaum is also on the Freedom of the Press Foundation Technical Advisory Board.

Detention and investigation[edit]

Appelbaum has been detained at airports and had his electronic equipment seized several times.[10][36][37][38] In 2010, the US Department of Justice obtained a court order compelling Twitterto provide data associated with the user accounts of Appelbaum, as well as several other individuals associated with Wikileaks. While the order was originally sealed, Twitter successfully petitioned the court to unseal it, permitting the company to inform its users that their account information had been requested.[10][39]

Personal life[edit]

Appelbaum is an atheist[40] of Jewish background and identifies himself as bisexual.[17] He also is an anarchist[3]and enjoys photography.[41] He has moved to Berlin, where he has applied for residence authorization, his stated reasons include that he doesn't want to go back to the USA because he doesn't feel safe[42] and that privacy protections are better in Germany than in the US.[43] However, in December 2013, Appelbaum said he suspected the government[44] of breaking into his Berlin apartment.[45]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b "Tor Project: Core People". Tor. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  2. Jump up^ "Noisebridge user page". Noisebridge. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b Rich, Nathaniel (1 December 2010). "Meet the Most Dangerous Man in Cyberspace: The American Face of Wikileaks". Rolling Stone magazine. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  4. Jump up^ torproject.org: Tor Project: Core People
  5. Jump up^ McCullagh, Declan (17 July 2010). "Wikileaks editor skips NYC hacker event". CNET News. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
    • McCullagh, Declan (16 July 2010). "Feds look for Wikileaks founder at NYC hacker event". CNET News. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
    • Singel, Ryan (19 July 2010). "Wikileaks Reopens for Leakers". Wired. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  6. Jump up^ "monochrom". Jacob Appelbaum. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  7. Jump up^ SPIEGEL ONLINE: Catálogo Revela os dispositivos de Back Door da NSA - by Jacob Appelbaum- SPIEGEL ONLINE
  8. Jump up^ SPIEGEL ONLINE: NSA Secret Toolbox: ANT Unit Offers Spy Gadgets for Every Need - SPIEGEL ONLINE
  9. ^ Jump up to:a b SPIEGEL ONLINE: Interactive Graphic: The NSA's Spy Catalog - SPIEGEL ONLINE
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Democracy Now!: Parte 2: William Binney, Daniel Ellsberg, Jacob Appelbaum falam sobre WikiLeaks e Vigilância | Democracy Now!
  11. Jump up^ April 20, 2012 | Democracy Now!
  12. Jump up^ CBS News: NSA can spy on offline computers wirelessly, says security expert - CBS News
  13. Jump up^ LeakSource: NSA’s ANT Division Catalog of Exploits for Nearly Every Major Software/Hardware/Firmware | LeakSource
  14. Jump up^ "Cult of the Dead Cow Membership List, retrieved November 10, 2011". W3.cultdeadcow.com. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  15. Jump up^ Hartwell, Lane (10 June 2007). "‘So Who Wants to F**k a Robot?’".Wired.com. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  16. Jump up^ Appelbaum, Jacob (22 June 2004). "Geeks Love Trees, Too".Greenpeace – Weblog. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b Rich, Nathaniel (1 December 2010). "The American Wikileaks Hacker". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  18. Jump up^ "monochrom". monochrom. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  19. Jump up^ "Snowden ally Appelbaum claims his Berlin apartment was invaded".Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  20. Jump up^ Rich, Nathaniel (1 December 2010). "The American Wikileaks Hacker".Rolling Stone. Retrieved 3 July 2014. "An anarchist street kid raised by a heroin- addict father, he dropped out of high school, taught himself the intricacies of code and developed a healthy paranoia along the way."
  21. Jump up^ "22nd Chaos Communication Congress: Jacob Appelbaum". Untrusted connection.
  22. Jump up^ "Unlocking FileVault: An analysis of Apple's encrypted disk storage system". Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  23. Jump up^ Jade, Charles (December 2006). "FileVault or VileFault?". Ars Technica. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  24. Jump up^ https://code.google.com/p/vilefault/
  25. Jump up^ Markoff, John (22 February 2008). "Researchers Find Way to Steal Encrypted Data". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  26. Jump up^ J. Alex Halderman, Seth D. Schoen, Captain Sassypants, William Clarkson, William Paul, Joseph A. Calandrino, Ariel J. Feldman, Jacob Appelbaum, and Edward W. Felten (21 February 2008). "Lest We Remember: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys". Princeton University. Retrieved 22 February 2008.
  27. Jump up^ Krebs, Brian (30 December 2008). "Researchers Hack Internet Security Infrastructure". The Washington Post. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  28. Jump up^ McCullagh, Declan (30 July 2009). "Hackers: We can bypass San Francisco e-parking meters". CNET News. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  29. Jump up^ "Assange 'The World Tomorrow' — Ep 8: Cypherpunks Part 1". Digitaljournal.com. 2012-06-05. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
  30. Jump up^ "Assange Episode 8: Cypherpunks, stumbling block in the way of total surveillance — RT News". Rt.com. 2012-06-05. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
  31. Jump up^ "Interview uncut: Jacob Appelbaum | The Verge Forums". Theverge.com. 2013-03-11. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
  32. Jump up^ Detlef Borchers (2013-07-23). "Whistleblower-Preis für Edward Snowden". Heise online. Archived from the original on 2013-07-25. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
  33. Jump up^ Edward Snowden: Die Wahrheit auszusprechen, hat Whistleblower ihre Freiheit gekostet - the acceptance speech in English and German, Die Zeit, 3. September 2013
  34. Jump up^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu6accTBjfs&feature=youtu.be&t=2h23m1s NSA Hearing European Parliament 5 Sept 2013
  35. Jump up^ Snowden ally Appelbaum claims his Berlin apartment was invaded,Deutsche Welle, 21 December 2013.
  36. Jump up^ Mills, Elinor (31 July 2010). "Researcher detained at US border, questioned about Wikileaks". CNET News. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  37. Jump up^ Jardin, Xeni (12 January 2011). "Wikileaks volunteer detained and searched (again) by US agents". Boing Boing. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  38. Jump up^ Fontain, Paul (27 October 2011). "Jacob Appelbaum Detained At Keflavík Airport". Grapevine. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
  39. Jump up^ McCullagh, Declan (7 January 2011). "DOJ sends order to Twitter for Wikileaks-related account info". CNET News. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  40. Jump up^ "Jacob Appelbaum (Part 1/2) Digital Anti-Repression Workshop - April 26, 2012". Retrieved 28 June 2013. "Like, for me, as an atheist, bisexual, Jew, I'm gonna go on, uh - oh and Emma Goldman is one of my great heroes and I really think that anarchism is a fantastic principle by which to fashion a utopian society even if we can't get there."
  41. Jump up^ "Jacob Applebaum". The World Justice Project. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  42. Jump up^ https://gnunet.org/tor2013tum-video video of a talk at the TU Munich from 24. Juli 2013 (statement at approx. 0:05:00)
  43. Jump up^ NSA Hearings European Parliament on YouTube
  44. Jump up^ Which government?
  45. Jump up^ "Snowden ally Appelbaum claims his Berlin apartment was invaded."Deutsche Welle. 21 December 2013.
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 20:02