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micahflee

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Hi, I'm Micah. I help journalists, researchers, and activists stay safe and productive.

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• Micah Lee

Mandatory Update: A Short Story

Mandatory Update: A Short Story

Guess what? Lately I've been nerding out on creative writing. I even joined a local fiction writers group where we meet up at coffee shops. Like, in person!

Anyway, I submitted a short story to the DEF CON 34 Creative Writing Short Story Contest. My story is called

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• Micah Lee

Read Cindy Cohn's new book, Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance

Read Cindy Cohn's new book, Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance

I just finished reading Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance, by my friend Cindy Cohn. It's excellent and you should buy a copy.

Cindy is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and this memoir/legal history goes over three major legal

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• Micah Lee

"Why hack the DHS? I can think of a couple Pretti Good reasons!"

"Why hack the DHS? I can think of a couple Pretti Good reasons!"

Today, DDoSecrets published data about ICE contracts hacked from DHS's Office of Industry Partnership. The hacker group, Department of Peace, published a statement that included:

Why hack the DHS? I can think of a couple Pretti Good reasons! I'm releasing this because the DHS is killing

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• Micah Lee

Is everyone in your Signal groups named something like "E" or "🥑"? Nicknames can help!

Is everyone in your Signal groups named something like "E" or "🥑"? Nicknames can help!

As ICE continues its invasion of American cities, kidnapping and murdering the people who live there, observers on the ground are increasingly relying on Signal groups to organize mutual aid and rapid response networks. In Minneapolis, people are using hyper-local Signal groups for their buildings, streets, neighborhoods, and schools.

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• Micah Lee

Jeffrey Epstein Bought Books About Pedophilia, Woody Allen, and Trump

Jeffrey Epstein Bought Books About Pedophilia, Woody Allen, and Trump

The disgraced financier’s Kindle library reveals his interests in Lolita, how the elite avoid accountability, and Trump’s many scandals.

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• Micah Lee

How to easily dig through the Epstein files yourself

How to easily dig through the Epstein files yourself

Today, I published my first article in Zeteo, alongside the amazing journalist Prem Thakker: Zeteo Scoured 26,000 Epstein Docs. Here’s What We Found. The latest Epstein dataset that the House Oversight Committee released is bonkers. It shows absolute elite impunity, and it implicates rich assholes like Donald

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• Micah Lee

I spoke about ICEBlock and Trump's app censorship on the kill switch podcast

In case you missed it, last week I was on an episode of the kill switch podcast. I discussed the ICEBlock app and why it was activism theater, and how the developer handled my vulnerability report in the worst possible way.

But I also talk about why, even though I

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• Micah Lee

Practical Defenses Against Technofascism

Practical Defenses Against Technofascism

I gave the Saturday morning keynote at BSidesPDX! I spoke honestly and frankly about the terrifying reality that Americans are facing under Trump's fascist regime, alongside practical advice for communities to defend themselves.

Watch my talk below. Of if you prefer reading articles over watching video, I'

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• Micah Lee

In war-torn Portland? Watch me speak at BSidesPDX!

I'll be giving the Saturday morning keynote at BSidesPDX next weekend in beautiful Portland, Oregon.

I'm still putting the final touches on my talk, but it will largely be about the new American technofascist reality of mercenary spyware, device searches, and app censorship, with a focus

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• Micah Lee

ICEBlock handled my vulnerability report in the worst possible way

ICEBlock handled my vulnerability report in the worst possible way

Last week, I wrote about how Joshua Aaron's ICEBlock app, which allows people to anonymously report ICE sightings within a 5-mile radius, is – unfortunately, and despite apparent good intentions – activism theater. This was based on Joshua's talk at HOPE where he made it

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• Micah Lee

Unfortunately, the ICEBlock app is activism theater

Unfortunately, the ICEBlock app is activism theater

At this summer's HOPE conference, Joshua Aaron spoke about ICEBlock, his iPhone app that allows users to anonymously report ICE sightings within a 5 mile radius, and to get notifications when others report ICE sightings near them. You can see the full talk, and the lively/infuriating Q&

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• Micah Lee

"We are currently clean on OPSEC": The Signalgate Saga

I just gave my first solo main stage DEFCON talk, about Signalgate, and I think it was a resounding success! The room was packed – apparently people were waiting outside to get in. I got tons of positive feedback, and no negative feedback (though, someone told me a boomer sitting

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• Micah Lee

Going to DEFCON? See my talk, "We are currently clean on OPSEC": The Signalgate Saga

Going to DEFCON? See my talk, "We are currently clean on OPSEC": The Signalgate Saga

Hacker Summer camp is upon us. If you're going to DEFCON, make sure to check out my talk! It's Saturday at 4pm. Here are the details:

"We are currently clean on OPSEC": The Signalgate Saga

Saturday at 16:00 in LVCC - L1 - EHW3 - Track

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• Micah Lee

Using Signal groups for activism

Using Signal groups for activism

Things are heating up. Millions of people are taking to the streets against Trump's rising authoritarianism. Communities around the US are organizing to defend against ICE raids, to protest Israeli genocide, for mutual aid, and for other forms of fighting fascism. Signal can help people safely organize in

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• Micah Lee

TeleMessage Explorer: a new open source research tool

TeleMessage Explorer: a new open source research tool

I've spent the last week or two writing code to make sense of the massive hack of data from TeleMessage, the comically insecure company that makes a modified Signal app that Trump's former national security advisor Mike Waltz was caught using. I've decided to

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• Micah Lee

TeleMessage customers include DC Police, Andreessen Horowitz, JP Morgan, and hundreds more

TeleMessage customers include DC Police, Andreessen Horowitz, JP Morgan, and hundreds more
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Update May 26, 2025: I've published the source code for TeleMessage Explorer: a new open source research tool

I've been digging through the 410 GB of Java heap dumps from TeleMessage's archive server, provided by DDoSecrets. Here's a description of the