Edward Snowden Urging All to Avoid ExpressVPN After its CIO Named in UAE Surveillance Scandal.
Last week, Hackread.com reported on a billion-dollar deal in which ExpressVPN was bought off by Kape, an Israeli cyber security company raising privacy concerns among its users. Now, in a recent tweet, the former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has warned users to stop using ExpressVPN.
“If you’re an ExpressVPN customer, you shouldn’t be,” Snowden posted on Twitter.
This warning seems to be in reaction to the news that ExpressVPN’s CIP, Daniel Gericke, is one of the three ex-US intelligence operatives who admitted illegally helping the UAE government perform hacking on their targeted people.
If you’re an ExpressVPN customer, you shouldn’t be. https://t.co/l8us92W0BQ
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 16, 2021
About Project Raven
Court documents revealed that Gericke was part of the team that performed hacking and spying for the UAE.
According to the US Department of Justice, ExpressVPN’s CIO worked on the UAE government’s surveillance operation dubbed Project Raven to hack heads of state, American personalities, and activists.
Daniel Gericke, one of the Project Raven hackers charged today, is the CIO of the largest VPN in the market: ExpressVPN (based off a Linkedin review)
— Chris Bing (@Bing_Chris) September 14, 2021
ExpressVPN Didn’t Deny the Claim.
It is rather amusing that ExpressVPN, one of the world’s leading VPN services providers, hasn’t denied that claim that its CIO has been involved in Project Raven. The company released a statement explaining that the facts narrated in the report were before the company employed Daniel, and they have been aware of this since the start.
“We’ve known the key facts relating to Daniel’s employment history since before we hired him, as he disclosed them proactively and transparently with us from the start. In fact, it was his history and expertise that made him an invaluable hire for our mission to protect users’ privacy and security,” ExpressVPN stated.
“To be completely clear, as much as we value Daniel’s expertise and how it has helped us to protect customers, we do not condone Project Raven,” the company added.
Although the company regarded Project Raven and surveillance in general as antithetical, it wants to retain Gericke as its employee since Daniel has 20 years long experience in the cybersecurity industry and has worked in the US military.
“He has consistently and continuously strengthened and reinforced the systems that allow us to deliver privacy and security to millions of people,” ExpressVPN explained.
For your information, Daniel Gericke was hired by ExpressVPN in 2019 and before his employment, Daniel ceased his contract with the UAE. Moreover, ExpressVPN states that the company has implemented several security measures to safeguard its users’ privacy.
“While we are confident that our commitment to this mission is unwavering, we understand that actions speak louder than words. To begin with, we’ll be increasing the cadence of our existing third-party audits to annually recertify our full compliance with our Privacy Policy, including our policy of not storing any activity or connection logs. This is just a first step, and we will continue to strive to earn your trust,” ExpressVPN blog post on the issue read.
