Jacob Appelbaum (born April 1, 1983) 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. In 2013, Appelbaum was one of a small group of journalists who had direct access to the NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden, he was then part of publication of the stories in Der Spiegel on U.S. spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on United Nations diplomats, and other stories. In 2014, Appelbaum was awarded the Henri Nannen Prize, the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize in Germany, for his work on the U.S-Merkel-spying story. Later that year, he accepted awards on-behalf of Snowden, who was marooned in Russia as an asylee. In 2016, he was the object of allegations of sexual misconduct, and alleged assault. No formal charges were filed. Within a short-period around June 2016, Appelbaum withdrew or was asked to step down from many of the organizations for which he was well-known as a key member, as well as his employer Tor. Tor performed an external investigation, the results of which supported the accusers. Appelbaum denied the allegations. German press outlet Die Zeit defended Appelbaum (who is a resident of Germany), citing the lack of formal charges by accusers as well as inconsistencies and contradictions in the allegations. Appelbaum was defended by a group of female lawyers, activists and journalists with whom he had worked closely. These women launched an online appeal for support to contest the allegations, voicing concerns about due process, trial by social media, and questioning the claims. In 2024, a documentary about Appelbaum, Nobody Wants to Talk About Jacob Appelbaum, directed and produced by Jamie Kastner, which addressed the allegations and accusers, and Appelbaum's position on events, became available on Apple TV. Appelbaum's life in Berlin was shown, including challenges faced due to pressure from the United States Department of Justice to testify against the imprisoned Julian Assange, interviews with WikiLeaks lawyer Margaret Ratner Kunstler, and his personal experiences with U.S. surveillance.
Early life and education Appelbaum says that he tested out of high school and attended junior college briefly before he "stopped college and continued [his] education". In a wide-ranging interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2010, Appelbaum stated that he comes from "a family of lunatics... [a]ctual, raving lunatics". He stated that his mother "is a paranoid schizophrenic" who "insisted that Jake had somehow been molested by his father while he was still in the womb". He was taken away from his mother by his aunt when he was 6. Two years later, he was placed in a children's home in Sonoma County. At age 10, his indigent father was awarded custody of him. According to him, having been introduced to computer programming by a friend's father saved his life: "The Internet is the only reason I'm alive today." Appelbaum says that he developed OCD at a young age. He has also stated that his father, who struggled with heroin addiction, was murdered by poisoning. Starting in 2015, Appelbaum was a Ph.D. student studying under at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in March 2022. which is published under the title "Communication in a world of pervasive surveillance".
Career
Journalism Appelbaum was among several people to gain access to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's top secret documents released in 2013. On 23 October 2013, Appelbaum and other writers and editors at Der Spiegel reported that their investigations had led German Chancellor Angela Merkel to confront the U.S. government over evidence that it was monitoring her personal cell phone. US President Barack Obama denied the report. The Der Spiegel team reported on the resulting controversy and detailed a further claim that the Embassy of the United States, Berlin, was being used as a base of operations for electronic surveillance of its German ally. The BBC's Damien McGuinness commented that "The scandal has caused one of the biggest diplomatic rifts between Germany and the U.S." At the scandal's peak, Merkel compared the National Security Agency with the East German Stasi secret police during an angry conversation with Obama.
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