Security wizard Bruce Schneier joins the Tor Project

[Batu69]

Joined by five more luminaries from the security and privacy spheres

All change at the top for Tor

 

SECURITY WIZARD Bruce Schneier has joined the Tor Project's board of directors, along with five experts in the privacy field.

 

The changes come after Jacob Appelbaum, a developer and spokesman for Tor, was asked to resign in May following allegations of sexual misconduct. Appelbaum continues to deny the claims, but all seven of Tor's board members agreed to step aside to allow the organisation to make a fresh start.

 

Those that have left are Meredith Hoban Dunn, Ian Goldberg, Julius Mittenzwei, Rabbi Rob Thomas, Wendy Seltzer, Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson.

 

They have been replaced by six luminaries from the security and privacy spheres, detailed in a Tor Project blog post.

Perhaps the best known is author and security expert Bruce Schneier, whose latest book Data and Goliath, looks at the tensions caused by government and corporate surveillance and individuals' right to privacy.

 

He is also a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advisory board member of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre and VerifiedVoting.org, a special adviser to IBM Security and chief technology officer at Resilient, which was recently acquired by IBM.

 

Schneier is joined by Matt Blaze, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has researched surveillance technology for more than 20 years and has expertise in cryptography, secure systems and public policy.

 

Another new member is Cindy Cohn, a lawyer and executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Cohn has mounted lawsuits against the US National Security Agency, provided legal counsel to computer programmers building and developing privacy and anonymity tools, and helped to develop the Necessary and Proportionate Principles applying international human rights standards to digital communications surveillance.

 

Academic and author Gabriella Coleman is another new addition. She holds the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University, and her works on privacy and security include the books Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous.

 

Linus Nordberg, meanwhile, is an internet and privacy activist who has been involved with Tor since 2009. He is a software developer specialising in network security and operating internet services.

 

The sixth new board member is technologist and activist Megan Price, executive director of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group and a member of the technical advisory board for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.

 

Tor executive director Shari Steele said of the decision of the previous board members to step aside: "I think this was an incredibly brave and selfless thing for the board to do. They're making a clear statement that they want the organisation to become its best self."

 

Recruiting the new members was not a problem, Steele told the The New York Times.

"All of them had been watching what was going on with Tor and were committed and enthusiastic about growing this into a stronger and sustainable organisation," she said.

 

Article source

[pc71520]

That's good news.

 

When it comes to Privacy and Security,

Schneier has been a well-respected figure.