33 Facts About Jacob Appelbaum

Jacob Appelbaum was born on April 1,1983 and is an American independent journalist, computer security researcher, artist, hacker and teacher.

Under the pseudonym "ioerror", Jacob Appelbaum was an active member of the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective from 2008 to 2016.

Jacob Appelbaum was the co-founder of the San Francisco hackerspace Noisebridge with Mitch Altman.

Jacob Appelbaum was on the Technical Advisory Board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

In 2013, Jacob 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 US spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on United Nations diplomats, and other stories.

German press outlet Die Zeit defended Jacob Appelbaum, citing the lack of formal charges by accusers, inconsistencies and contradictions in the allegations.

Jacob Appelbaum was defended by a group of female lawyers, activists and journalists with whom he had worked closely.

In 2024, a documentary about Appelbaum, "No One 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 AppleTV.

Jacob Appelbaum says that he tested out of high school and attended junior college briefly before he "stopped college and continued [his] education".

Jacob Appelbaum 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".

Jacob Appelbaum was taken away from his mother by his aunt when he was 6.

Jacob Appelbaum has stated that his father, who struggled with heroin addiction, has been murdered by poisoning.

Jacob Appelbaum was among several people to gain access to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's top secret documents released in 2013.

An investigative team at Der Spiegel, including Jacob Appelbaum, simultaneously published their findings, along with a descriptive list of the surveillance devices making up the NSA ANT catalog.

Jacob Appelbaum is a contributor to Julian Assange's 2012 book Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet along with Andy Muller-Maguhn and Jeremie Zimmermann.

Jacob Appelbaum was a member of the outside volunteer technical advisory board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation until 8 June 2016.

In 2005, Jacob Appelbaum gave two talks at the 22nd Chaos Communication Congress, Personal Experiences: Bringing Technology and New Media to Disaster Areas, and A Discussion About Modern Disk Encryption Systems.

Jacob Appelbaum has taken part in a number of art projects with dissident artists including Laura Poitras, Trevor Paglen, Ai Weiwei, and Angela Richter.

Jacob Appelbaum's art has given rise to projects such as Panda to Panda and the Autonomy Cube.

Jacob Appelbaum is a photographer who has contributed still photographs to film and game projects.

Jacob Appelbaum exhibited his work in a solo show at NOME in 2016.

Jacob Appelbaum appeared in Laura Poitras's Academy Award-winning film Citizenfour, which documents the public emergence of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden and the political circumstances leading to his actions.

Jacob Appelbaum was an artist in residence for the art group monochrom at Museumsquartier in 2006.

Jacob Appelbaum represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a keynote address at the 2010 HOPE conference.

Jacob Appelbaum says he believes he has been under government surveillance since 2009, to the detriment of himself, his friends, and his close relations.

Jacob Appelbaum has described various aggressive surveillance events, and implies they are related to his work with WikiLeaks, to his privacy activism, and to relationships with other privacy activists, notably reporters linked to Edward Snowden.

In December 2013, Jacob Appelbaum said he suspected the US government of breaking into his Berlin apartment and using his computer.

In March 2015, Jacob Appelbaum was suspended from his position at the Tor Project for ten days due to alleged incidents of harassment.

On 25 May 2016, Jacob Appelbaum stepped down from his position at Tor; this was announced on 2 June by the non-profit in a short statement.

On 17 June 2016, activists, journalists and legal professionals supporting Jacob Appelbaum signed a document defending his right to due process, and deploring the story's treatment by social media.

In July 2016, Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that allegations against Jacob Appelbaum had been known in Berlin hacker circles for years.

Jacob Appelbaum is an atheist of Jewish background and identifies himself as queer.

Jacob Appelbaum has stated that he does not want to go back to the United States because he doesn't feel safe there and in interviews he has provided specific examples of experiences that left him feeling unsafe.