Jacob Appelbaum (born 1 April 1983) is an American independent journalist, computer security researcher, artist, and hacker. Appelbaum studied at the Eindhoven University of Technology and was a core member of the Tor project, a free software network designed to provide online anonymity, until he stepped down from his position over sexual abuse allegations which surfaced in 2016. He was among several people to work with NSA contractor Edward Snowden's top