Daniel Domscheit-Berg, born in 1978, is a German activist and IT security expert. He helped build the WikiLeaks platform from late 2007 to September 2010, and acted as its spokesperson under the pseudonym Daniel Schmitt. He quit WikiLeaks over disputes about its strategic orientation, lack of transparency and management style.... Read more
Daniel Domscheit-Berg, born in 1978, is a German activist and IT security expert. He helped build the WikiLeaks platform from late 2007 to September 2010, and acted as its spokesperson under the pseudonym Daniel Schmitt. He quit WikiLeaks over disputes about its strategic orientation, lack of transparency and management style. Domscheit-Berg wrote a book about his experiences “Inside WikiLeaks“, which was published in early 2011, was translated into 23 languages and was one source for the subsequent Hollywood movie “The Fifth Estate”.
Before WikiLeaks, Daniel Domscheit-Berg worked for various fortune 500 companies, mainly building enterprise-scale wireless and wired networks for the automotive and transport industries.
A network security expert by trade, Domscheit-Berg is an advocate for transparency and freedom of speech by heart, deeply caring for equal access to knowledge and information in a globalized world. In 2011, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine in its FP Top 100 Global Thinkers. Domscheit-Berg today is involved with various internet projects relacted to privacy and anonymity, and furthering the decentralization of the Internet’s infrastructure. In 2017 he founded the “Verstehbahnhof”, an open workshop and makerspace for the up and coming in Brandenburg’s countryside where he passionately teaches kids about electronics and technology.
Daniel Domscheit-Berg has presented and debated on future chances as well as risks in a digitized and networked world in a multitude of both national and international conferences and fora, spanning a broad range from universities via commercial venues to the World Economic Forum, and is regularly present in national and international media on said topics.