Jacob Appelbaum

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Jacob Appelbaum giving a lecture at the Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg , 2013

Jacob "Jake" Appelbaum (born April 1, 1983 ) is an American freelance journalist and specialist in computer security . In 2013, together with journalists from Spiegel , he uncovered how the US secret service NSA was tapping into the cell phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel . He is committed to the Tor anonymization network , whose project he was a software developer until May 2016. Appelbaum was also a technical advisor to the Freedom of the Press Foundation .

Life

Appelbaum is co-founder of the hackerspace "Noisebridge" in San Francisco (2007). In the past he has been involved with Greenpeace , the Ruckus Society and the Rainforest Action Network .

Appelbaum became known, among other things, as the developer of Tor . Together with the project manager Roger Dingledine , he gave regular lectures in which he spoke out in support of Tor.

Appelbaum worked on several research projects in the field of practical information security . In 2008, together with a research group led by Alex Halderman, he succeeded in reading cryptographic keys from the main memory even after a computer was switched off using a cold start attack . In the same year he helped another group of researchers demonstrate a successful attack on the X.509 certificate system. Using a collision attack on the MD5 hash function , it was possible to create a forged CA certificate that was classified as trustworthy by the certification authority Equifax (marketed as RapidSSL ). In an automatic process, RapidSSL signed a harmless certificate from the attacker, but its MD5 hash was identical to a forged CA certificate. With a CA certificate, new SSL / TLS certificates can be issued under any name in order to redirect supposedly secure HTTPS connections to the attacker. The expiry date of the CA certificate was intentionally set to 2004 so that the certificate could not be used for actual attacks beyond the proof of concept . In response to the attack, RapidSSL and other X.509 certification authorities switched to the SHA-1 hash function .

Appelbaum is a regular speaker at the Chaos Communication Congress . In 2005, he reported on his April 2005 trip to Iraq and his trip to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina . His motivation for traveling was his sick father, who died in December 2004. He blogged about both trips , with a focus on videos and interviews . He published his photos under a Creative Commons license. Also in 2005 he presented an overview of different hard disk encryption methods in different operating systems , as well as the legal status in Germany , the United Kingdom and the USA . He showed that Apple's FileVault is insecure and that you can read the encrypted container with little effort.

At the Chaos Communication Congress 2012 in Hamburg, Appelbaum gave the keynote in which he spoke out against state surveillance and called for participation in the Tor network . At the Chaos Communication Congress 2013, he and WikiLeaks activists Sarah Harrison and Julian Assange called for whistleblowing .

Appelbaum also contributed to the creation of the play Assassinate Assange by Angela Richter and had a cameo in two performances in 2013/2014 at the Cologne Theater . In cooperation with Angela Richter, discussion rounds were then organized in which various guests (including the human rights lawyer Renata Avila ) discussed the current effects of the NSA scandal and answered questions from the audience. On November 22, he met US Ambassador John B. Emerson , who was a guest in the audience and tried to defend the NSA's measures as "state legitimized". After Appelbaum rejected this, Emerson left the event.

Appelbaum is a journalist and has written for the Guardian and Der Spiegel , among others, about the surveillance practices of US intelligence agencies. For research to monitor the cell phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel by the NSA he received on May 16, 2014 Henri Nannen Prize for the best investigative power in 2013. A few days after the ceremony, he announced with reference to the Nazi past Henri Nannen that he will reject the price. He wants to melt the bust (a Nannen portrait ) and rededicate it:

“This head will then represent the most important figure in investigative journalism: the anonymous source. [...] I will donate the prize money to two anti-fascist groups that are continuing the fight. [...] Given its own history of fascism and surveillance, Germany has a moral authority that we can use to save the life of a young man: I'm talking about Edward Snowden. Germany shouldn't blindly follow other countries. Germany can take an important path, even if it goes it alone. "

Appelbaum donated the money to the Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists and to the Antifascist Press Archive and Education Center Berlin .

Appelbaum is artistically active as a photographer and was artist in residence in 2006 for the group monochrom in the MuseumsQuartier Wien. Appelbaum has worked with various artists such as Laura Poitras , Trevor Paglen and Ai Weiwei .

Controversy over coercion allegations

Jacob Appelbaum left the Tor project on May 25, 2016 on allegations that he had committed sexual assault and plagiarized the work of others . The Tor project said they had engaged a law firm specializing in labor law to investigate the matter. Appelbaum rejected the allegations of a criminal act. He described the incident as a calculated attack against him and reserved legal action. Shortly afterwards, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow also separated from him and the Noisebridge hackerspace in San Francisco banned him from the house. On June 17, 2016, the Chaos Computer Club posted a message on Twitter affirming that Jacob Appelbaum was not welcome. On June 18, 2016, his Debian GNU / Linux developer status was revoked. In June 2016, Appelbaum's Berlin house was sprayed with graffiti in English and German, which showcased the allegations.

The allegations of sexual abuse, plagiarism and coercion were repeated on a website by initially anonymous accusers. This is sometimes seen in the press as a negative aspect of the anonymous network power of accusation and suspicion, which, bypassing official government agencies, exposes people. Two suspects later revealed their identities. They are Isis Agora Lovecruft, a Tor developer, and Alison Macrina, a librarian.

On July 27, 2016, the Tor project confirmed and reiterated the allegations against Appelbaum after an internal investigation. Research by the weekly newspaper Die Zeit - published on August 11, 2016 - revealed doubts about the allegations against Appelbaum.

In the context of the 34C3 Hacker Meeting 2017, the Chaos Computer Club, the "Appelbaum case" also played a role.

Support for WikiLeaks

Appelbaum was one of WikiLeaks' early supporters . In early 2010 he helped the group prepare for the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative . He represented Julian Assange in July of the same year at a lecture at the hacker conference " HOPE " in New York City . The conference organizers reported that four officers from the Department of Homeland Security had been looking for Assange there. After the lecture, a doppelganger distracted the conference attendees so he could get to the airport himself.

On July 29, 2010, he was arrested and interrogated by an employee of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement , an agency subordinate to the Department of Homeland Security, and a member of the US Army while he was returning to the USA . His laptop was initially confiscated. However, since this apparently did not contain an unencrypted, searchable hard drive , it was returned to him a short time later. Participation in the hacker conference "HOPE" was given as the reason for the determination. The interrogation lasted three hours, during which the US officials inquired, among other things, about Assange's current whereabouts. Appelbaum was not allowed to call his lawyer during this time.

During his presentation at DEFCON on July 31, 2010, he mentioned that his cell phones had been confiscated. After the lecture he was questioned by FBI agents.

Appelbaum is one of the people who were affected by a request for information from the US government to Twitter . Since December 2010, the US Department of Justice has tried to obtain personal data from Twitter about supporters of WikiLeaks. It was unsuccessful until October 2011, but in November a federal district court in Virginia ruled that Twitter had to release the data. Internet provider Sonic.net Inc. released information about Appelbaum under pressure from the US government.

Move to Berlin

Jacob Appelbaum on Freedom Instead of Fear in Berlin 2013. Laura Poitras on the left in the background.

After the Snowden leaks on the global surveillance and espionage affair, Appelbaum found the state methods of intimidation in the USA to be too comprehensive and the data protection measures in Germany better and moved to Berlin after the first Snowden revelations began. The documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras , whom Edward Snowden first approached, contacted Appelbaum to evaluate the documents revealed by Snowden. Poitras and Appelbaum previously worked on a documentary about whistleblowers and NSA surveillance. Appelbaum has applied for a residence permit in Germany and says he does not want to return to the USA.

At the presentation of the International Whistleblower Prize by Transparency International , the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms and the Association of German Scientists on August 30, 2013 in the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Appelbaum delivered Snowden's acceptance speech.

Appelbaum sees himself being followed by secret services in Berlin . In December 2013 it was reported that strangers had broken into Appelbaum's apartment in Berlin and manipulated his computer.

Publications

literature

Web links

Commons : Jacob Appelbaum  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.artlyst.com/articles/ai-weiwei-teams-up-with-wikileaks-activist-jacob-appelbaum-for-collaboration
  2. ↑ a b John Markoff: Researchers Find Way to Steal Encrypted Data. The New York Times , February 22, 2008, accessed August 2, 2010 .
  3. ^ A b Christian Fuchs : Strong doubts about rape allegation , Zeit Online, August 10, 2016
  4. ^ Jacob Appelbaum leaves the Tor Project | The Tor Blog. In: blog.torproject.org. Retrieved June 3, 2016 .
  5. ^ Trevor Timm: Statement on Jacob Appelbaum. In: Freedom of the Press Foundation. June 8, 2016, Retrieved June 8, 2016 .
  6. ↑ The American Wikileaks Hacker. Retrieved November 27, 2012 .
  7. ↑ TEDxFlanders 2012 Introspection: Jacob Appelbaum ( memento of October 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 10, 2013.
  8. ↑ J. Alex Halderman, Seth D. Schoen, Nadia Heninger, William Clarkson, William Paul, Joseph A. Calandrino, Ariel J. Feldman, Jacob Appelbaum, Edward W. Felten: Lest We Remember: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys. Princeton University , February 21, 2008, accessed August 2, 2010 .
  9. ↑ Christiane Rütten: 25C3: Successful attack on the SSL certificate system. Heise online , December 30, 2008, accessed on August 2, 2010 .
  10. ^ Jacob Appelbaum, David Molnar, Marc Stevens, Arjen Lenstra , Benne de Weger, Alexander Sotirov, Dag Arne Osvik: MD5 considered harmful today: Creating a rogue CA Certificate . December 30, 2008 (also as a lecture recording ).
  11. ^ Jacob Appelbaum: Personal experiences bringing technology and new media to disaster areas. (MP4 file; 482.5 MB) December 28, 2005, accessed August 5, 2010 (English).
  12. ^ Jacob Appelbaum: A discussion about modern disk encryption systems . December 30, 2005 ( MK4 file , 437.7 MB, or PDF file ( Memento from July 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), 549 kB, English).
  13. ↑ Stefan Krempl (Heise): 29C3: Call for resistance against the surveillance state , December 27, 2012. Accessed January 10, 2013.
  14. ↑ Detlef Borchers, Dorothee Wiegand: 30C3: System administrators of all countries, betray the secrets! In: Heise online . December 30, 2013, accessed June 21, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Schedule 30C3: Sysadmins of the world unite . Video .
  16. ↑ Jacob Appelbaum, Judith Horchert, Ole Reißmann, Marcel Rosenbach, Jörg Schindler and Christian Stocker: New documents: The Secret toolbox NSA , Der Spiegel, December 30, 2013
  17. ↑ The Scary Friend , 2013.
  18. ^ Henri Nannen Prize 2014: SPIEGEL editor wins with Gurlitt report. In: Spiegel Online . May 16, 2014, accessed June 21, 2014 .
  19. ↑ Nannen Prize Winner Appelbaum no longer wants the prize ( Memento from May 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), In: NDR Online , May 24, 2013
  20. ^ Ingmar Zahorsky: Talk w / Jacob Appelbaum. (No longer available online.) October 24, 2006, archived from the original on July 23, 2011 ; Retrieved August 2, 2010 .
  21. ↑ jacob appelbaum, our monochrome artist-in-residence, has just arrived. monochrom Info, Vienna, December 3, 2006.
  22. ↑ Laura Poitras: 'The Art of Dissent' . In: The New York Times , June 9, 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2019. 
  23. ^ Jacob Appelbaum leaves the Tor Project | The Tor Blog. In: blog.torproject.org. Retrieved June 3, 2016 .
  24. ↑ Patrick Beuth: Tor project: allegations of abuse against Jacob Appelbaum . In: The time . June 5, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed June 5, 2016]).
  25. ↑ Statement | The Tor Blog. In: blog.torproject.org. Retrieved June 5, 2016 .
  26. ↑ Achim Barczok: Jacob Appelbaum leaves Tor after allegations of abuse. In: heise online. June 5, 2016, accessed June 5, 2016 .
  27. ↑ heise online: "Accusations completely wrong": Jacob Appelbaum rejects allegations. In: heise online. Retrieved June 6, 2016 .
  28. ^ Trevor Timm: Statement on Jacob Appelbaum. In: Freedom of the Press Foundation. June 8, 2016, Retrieved June 8, 2016 .
  29. ^ T3n: After resigning from Tor: Jacob Appelbaum rejects allegations of abuse. (No longer available online.) In: t3n. Archived from the original on June 9, 2016 ; Retrieved June 9, 2016 .
  30. ^ Noisebridge Statement on Jacob Appelbaum. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 12, 2016 ; accessed on July 15, 2016 (en-EN).
  31. ↑ CCC Updates on Twitter . In: Twitter . June 17, 2016 ( twitter.com [accessed April 18, 2017]).
  32. ↑ Enrico Zini, enrico@debian.org: Debian New Member process. Retrieved April 18, 2017 .
  33. ↑ Jacob Appelbaum and Gina-Lisa Lohfink: Sex as a commodity and weapon on the web and in the media ›Meedia. June 13, 2016, accessed April 18, 2017 .
  34. ↑ Constantin van Lijnden : Shamestorms. Shame on you! ZEIT Online , July 30, 2016.
  35. ^ The Forest for the Trees. Retrieved April 18, 2017 .
  36. ↑ Nicole Perlroth: Tor Project Confirms Sexual Misconduct Claims Against Employee. The New York Times, July 27, 2016, accessed August 8, 2016 .
  37. ↑ Lars Weisbrod and Christian Fuchs: What did this man do? , DIE ZEIT No. 34/2016, August 11, 2016 , accessed on August 12, 2016
  38. ↑ #MeToo and the CCC Congress # 34C3 Chaotic Computer Club by Lalon Sander, TAZ December 31, 2017
  39. ↑ Marcel Rosenbach, Holger Stark: Public enemy WikiLeaks. How a group of net activists challenge the most powerful nations in the world. Pp. 114-116 . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-421-04518-8 .
  40. ^ A b c d Marcel Rosenbach: Conflict over Afghanistan protocols: US authorities put WikiLeaks activists under pressure. Spiegel Online, August 1, 2010, accessed August 1, 2010 .
  41. ↑ US authorities are serious: the hunt for Wikileaks. Frankfurter Rundschau , accessed on August 2, 2010 .
  42. ↑ Rob Beschizza: Wikileaks volunteer detained. Boing Boing , July 31, 2010, accessed August 3, 2010 .
  43. ^ A b Werner Pluta: Afghanistan documents: US officials interrogate Wikileaks employees. Golem.de , August 1, 2010, accessed on August 1, 2010 .
  44. ^ Elinor Mills: Researcher detained at the US border, questioned about Wikileaks. CNET, July 31, 2010, accessed August 2, 2010 .
  45. ^ Spiegel online on January 8, 2011: US Department of Justice requires access to Twitter data. Retrieved January 9, 2011 .
  46. ^ Forbes on November 10, 2011: Court Rules Against WikiLeakers: Twitter Data Isn't Secret, Government Orders Are. Retrieved November 11, 2011 .
  47. ^ Spiegel Online on October 10, 2011: Order of the US government. Internet companies are supposed to expose WikiLeaks helpers. Retrieved October 10, 2011 .
  48. ^ The Wall Street Journal October 10, 2011: Secret Orders Target Email. WikiLeaks Backer's Information Sought. Retrieved October 10, 2011 .
  49. ^ Jacob Appelbaum on surveillance: "A tactic of decomposition" , Berliner Zeitung , December 20, 2013
  50. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6ja_0X9gyg from July 24, 2013 (statement at approx. 0:05:00)
  51. ^ Heise online authors Detlef Borchers, anw: Whistleblower Prize for Edward Snowden . In: Heise online . July 23, 2013. Archived from the original on July 25, 2013. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
  52. ↑ Edward Snowden: Speaking the truth, whistleblowers cost their freedom - Zeit online documents his acceptance speech , Die Zeit, September 3, 2013
  53. ↑ Broke into apartment and PC. Agents pursue Snowden confidante Jacob Appelbaum in Berlin , In: Focus Online , December 21, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Appelbaum, Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Appelbaum, Jake (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American freelance journalist and computer security specialist
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1983