Tor Project Board Replaces Itself

The entire board of the Tor Project has resigned and replaced itself with another raft of directors after allegations of sexual impropriety were leveled at a high-profile former member of the non-profit.

In a brief statement, the organization said it had made the changes to ensure the Tor mission is kept in high “public standing” – claiming, “it is time that we pass the baton of board oversight as the Tor Project moves into its second decade of operations.”

The new board will now include noted cryptographer Bruce Schneier, Electronic Frontier Foundation executive director, Cindy Cohn, and University of Pennsylvania professor, Matt Blaze.

"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 organization to become its best self,” said Tor Project executive director, Shari Steele, in a statement.

In early June, Steele posted a statement revealing that a number of people had over recent days made “serious, public allegations of sexual mistreatment by former Tor Project employee Jacob Appelbaum.”

“These types of allegations were not entirely new to everybody at Tor; they were consistent with rumors some of us had been hearing for some time,” she added. “That said, the most recent allegations are much more serious and concrete than anything we had heard previously.”

Appelbaum stepped down as a result of these allegations but has vigorously defended his innocence, branding the allegations “vicious and spurious” and amounting to a “calculated and targeted attack” against him.

“I am prepared to use legal channels, if necessary, to defend my reputation from these libellous accusations,” he added.

“I want to be clear: the accusations of criminal sexual misconduct against me are entirely false.”

The outgoing board members are: Roger Dingledine, Meredith Hoban Dunn, Ian Goldberg, Nick Mathewson, Julius Mittenzwei, Wendy Seltzer, and Rabbi Rob Thomas.

Source: Information Security Magazine