A Day in the Life of a Public Interest Hacktivist

Speaker

Matt Mitchell

Matt Mitchell is a senior cybersecurity program manager ​at the Ford Foundation, working with the BUILD and technology and society teams to develop digital security training, technical assistance offerings, and safety and security measures for the foundation’s grantee partners.

Committed to using his vast digital skills — as hacker, developer, operational security trainer, security researcher, and data journalist — for good, Matt has worked in various capacities at the intersection of technology and social justice. He directed digital safety and privacy for Tactical Technology Collective, a global NGO based in Berlin, and he has trained countless activists, journalists, and NGOs in digital security, safety, and privacy. In line with his personal work, which focuses on marginalized, aggressively monitored, over-policed populations, he founded and leads CryptoHarlem, impromptu workshops teaching basic cryptography tools to the predominantly African American community in Upper Manhattan. He has worked for private security firm GJS Security, helping to protect devices from hackers. He has also worked as a data journalist at the New York Times and as a developer at CNN, Time Inc., NewsOne, and other media outlets.

In 2016, Matt served as a Ford-Mozilla Open Web fellow, embedded at Color Of Change. He was also an Internet Freedom Festival fellow, a New America Cybersecurity Initiative fellow, and an adviser to the Open Technology Fund, Internet Freedom Festival, Human Rights Foundation, Digital Security Exchange (DSX), UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.