Sex-scandal in Tor

Anonyms achieved the dismissal of the star of the hacker community of Jacob Applum

One of the main developers of the system for the anonymous Internet access Tor Jacob Applebaum was accused of numerous sexual harassment. Several people who do not reveal their names told stories, from which it follows that Applum is prone to sexual violence; Anonymous accusations were also followed by public. The hacker did not admit his guilt, but he quit from Tor. "Medusa" talks about the scandal and its consequences.

Until recently, Jacob Applum was a key developer of the Tor project, but he is not only known. In the Community of Haccers, Applebaum is a real star . As a security specialist, he was engaged in the study of the so -called Cold Boot Attack - an attack during which an attacker can extract valuable information from his memory with a physical access to a computer. In addition, he worked on the safety of SSL certificates.

The Applebaum collaborated with WikiLeaks, and he is the only American who told about this openly. He also wrote a book in collaboration with Julian Assange and gained access to Edward Snowden's documents. In 2013, Applebaum introduced part of this archive at the influential conference of Chaos Communication Congress hackers; From the documents it followed that American special services can turn the iPhone into a listening device. Based on the Snowden archive, he wrote several articles in Der Spiegel.

In 2011, law enforcement agencies through the court achieved the right to receive data from Jacob Applum from Twitter and its provider. He was repeatedly detained at American airports, he was seized with equipment. As a result, he moved to Berlin. In 2013, the activist claimed that someone entered his apartment and took advantage of the computer.

In May 2016, JacobAppelbaum.net appeared. It was opened by a member of the Tor community, but who exactly is unknown. The site provides 10 anonymous stories about sexual harassment by Jacob Applebaum. Sam tells how Applebaum forcibly dragged her (or him; from the story is not obvious) into the bath. "River" reports how Applebaum made her (or, again, him) have sex in front of strangers. He simply kissed West at all at a conference without an “invitation and any manifestation of consent”. The site claims that the victims did not contact the police, because it was not customary to trust the police in their community.

When these accusations began to be widely discussed, Jacob Applebaum had to quit Tor. The Executive Director of the Sheri Steel project insisted on this. “Accusations of this type [against Applebaum] were not news for everyone in Tor. They correlate with rumors that reached some of us, ”she said . “Recent accusations are much more serious and more specific than those that we heard before.” Styles promised to conduct an internal investigation, but given the nature of the accusations, its results are unlikely to be published.

After the dismissal of Jacob Applebaum, several more people made accusations against him. The developer of the messenger Slack La Haniuel openly spoke about her relationship with Applebaum in 2006-2007. “He violated the boundaries I had set, as if it were a game. Especially when I was tipsy ... Once Jacob in the presence of my main partner ignored the Stop-Slovo, when he [Applebaum] began to use violence during sex, ”said Haniuel. In addition, three people from the Tor community claim that at a conference in Germany, Applum harassed one girl. True, through the PR managers of Applebaum, she passed a message in which she emphasizes that everything was fine .

According to the colleague of Applebaum Andrei Shepard, who also lives in Berlin, in 2013 he said in front of everyone that he would sleep with her and used the “mizogin phrase”. In the spring of 2015, he was removed from work for harassment for two weeks. What exactly was the reason is unknown.

Jake Applebaum himself denies the accusation . He claims that a planned attack is being conducted on him. “I want to say very clearly: accusations of sexual crimes against me are completely false,” his statement said. He refused to talk with journalists.

Vladimir Tsybulsky