Bernd Fix (born 19 March 1962 in

Wittingen Wittingen () is a town in the district of Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is about northeast of Gifhorn, and southeast of Uelzen. Division of the town Wittingen consists of 27 districts: History The earliest identified record of Wittin ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

and computer security expert.

Biography

After final secondary-school examination from Gymnasium

Hankensbüttel Hankensbüttel is a municipality in the Samtgemeinde Hankensbüttel in the district of Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 25 km south of Uelzen, and 30 km north of Gifhorn. The Municipality Hankensbüttel ...

in 1981, Bernd Fix studied

Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the he ...

and Philosophy at the universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. He received his

diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from grc, δίπλωμα ''diploma'') is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belaru ...

for a work in the field of theoretical astrophysics in 1989. From 1987 to 1989 Fix was one of the spokespersons for the

Chaos Computer Club The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an ''eingetragener Verein'' in Germany, with local chapters (called ''Erfa-Kreise'') in ...

and author for the "

Hacker Bible The Hacker Bible is a publication of the German hacker organization Chaos Computer Club (CCC). It has been published in two editions to date, 1985 and 1988. Both were edited by Wau Holland Herwart Holland-Moritz, known as Wau Holland, (20 Decem ...

2". After the death of his friend

Wau Holland Herwart Holland-Moritz, known as Wau Holland, (20 December 1951 – 29 July 2001) was a German computer security activist and journalist who in 1981 cofounded the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), one of the world's oldest hacking clubs. Career ...

(co-founder of the

) in 2001 Fix helped to establish the

Wau Holland Foundation The Wau Holland Foundation (German: Wau Holland Stiftung; WHS) is a nonprofit foundation based in Hamburg, Germany. It was established in 2003 in memory of Wau Holland, co-founder of the Chaos Computer Club. Loosely connected with the Chaos Compu ...

and serves as a founding member of the Board of Directors ever since. From 1998 Fix was living and working in Switzerland; he moved to

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

in 2014. According to Fix, when the Wau Holland Foundation started official operations in 2003, he and other founding members were in contact with Julian Assange and in 2009 they decided to support WikiLeaks. According to an interview from 2011, he got fired from his job at

SIX Financial Information SIX Financial Information, a subsidiary of SIX Group, is a multinational financial data vendor headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. The company provides market data which it gathers from the world's major trading venues directly and in real-t ...

because of the foundation's support for

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

. In July 2016, on the same day "Guccifer 2.0" sent Assange an encrypted 1 GB file containing stolen DNC emails, German hackers Andrew Müller-Maguhn and Bernd Fix met with Assange for at least four hours. Müller-Maguhn, the Wau Holland Foundation Vice President, is named in the Mueller report as a possible conduit for delivering hacked emails to Assange. According to ''The Washington Post'', a former WikiLeaks associate said that year Müller-Maguhn and a colleague oversaw submissions to WikiLeaks server that year, which Müller-Maguhn denied. According to court documents, Müller-Maguhn and Bernd Fix were identified as priority targets of UC Global's spying.

Work

In 1986 Fix joined the

(CCC) in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

and started to work on computer security issues, focussing on

computer virus A computer virus is a type of computer program that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. If this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected" with a compu ...

research. He published a first demo virus (Rushhour) in autumn 1986 in the

Datenschleuder ', literally translated as ''The Data Slingshot: The scientific trade journal for data voyagers'', is a German hacker magazine that is published at irregular intervals by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). Topics include primarily political and tech ...

#17, the hacker magazine edited by the CCC. He also contributed results of his research to the book "Computer Viruses" by

Ralf Burger Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...

. In 1987 he devised a method to neutralize the Vienna Virus; this event marks the first documented

antivirus software Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name ...

ever written. Fix is also the author of several research viruses; among them the VP370 virus for IBM

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

s. The VP370 source code was allegedly stolen by the

Bundesnachrichtendienst The Federal Intelligence Service (German: ; , BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinate to the Chancellor's Office. The BND headquarters is located in central Berlin and is the world's largest intelligence headq ...

(Federal Intelligence Service in Germany) in 1988 to be used in attacks against

East Block The East Block (officially the Eastern Departmental Building; french: Édifice administratif de l'est) is one of the three buildings on Canada's Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario, containing offices for parliamentarians, as well as some preser ...

and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

mainframe computer systems in the so-called "Project Rahab".http://aspector.com/~brf/rahab.html Bernd Fix: A strange story

References

External links

*
Wau Holland Foundation
*
Chaos Computer Club
*

*
Das-Internet-darf-kein-Rechtsfreier-Raum-sein.pdf
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fix, Bernd 1962 births Living people People from Wittingen German computer scientists Hackers Members of Chaos Computer Club WikiLeaks