by Alan Macleod
Part 4 - Express VPN Executive, a Former Spy
When using a VPN service, users place a large amount of trust in the VPN company itself. They must trust that it is effectively encrypting users’ traffic, securing their data and the server network infrastructure, and not doing anything else with the vast amount of sensitive information they are given. As noted previously, individuals and organizations use VPNs to carry out all manner of highly compromising activities online.
Unfortunately, Daniel Gericke, ExpressVPN’s chief technology officer (CTO) from 2019-2023, was deeply involved in such questionable practices. A Reuters investigation series revealed that Gericke was a key member of a team of spies that hacked the devices of human rights activists, journalists and government officials, stealing their data and passing it on to the government of the United Arab Emirates. The UAE used this data to track down dissidents and torture them, according to the investigation.
Unfortunately, Daniel Gericke, ExpressVPN’s chief technology officer (CTO) from 2019-2023, was deeply involved in such questionable practices. A Reuters investigation series revealed that Gericke was a key member of a team of spies that hacked the devices of human rights activists, journalists and government officials, stealing their data and passing it on to the government of the United Arab Emirates. The UAE used this data to track down dissidents and torture them, according to the investigation.
ExpressVPN hired Gericke (a former manager for weapons firm Lockheed Martin) after the Reuters exposé and continued to back him, even after the U.S. Department of Justice fined him $335,000 for his role in the clandestine operation. “Our trust in Daniel remains strong,” the company said in a statement. Gericke left ExpressVPN last summer after nearly four years with the company.
Both the Gericke hire and its sale to an Anglo-Israeli corporation with a more than questionable past led to an exodus of staff at ExpressVPN and raises many questions about what exactly this cyber-mercenary, who was under investigation by the U.S. government for stealing sensitive data from tens of millions of people and passing it on to a foreign government, was doing as an executive at ExpressVPN for all that time, especially with the company’s user data. “If you’re an ExpressVPN customer, you shouldn’t be,” concluded whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Both the Gericke hire and its sale to an Anglo-Israeli corporation with a more than questionable past led to an exodus of staff at ExpressVPN and raises many questions about what exactly this cyber-mercenary, who was under investigation by the U.S. government for stealing sensitive data from tens of millions of people and passing it on to a foreign government, was doing as an executive at ExpressVPN for all that time, especially with the company’s user data. “If you’re an ExpressVPN customer, you shouldn’t be,” concluded whistleblower Edward Snowden.
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