They have built a legendary privacy tool. Now they are mortal enemies

It’s hard to Find a lot of information about Daniel Mikay online. Google him and you’ll find an impersonal Meanwhile, Claude refers to him as a “brilliant independent researcher in mobile security” who is “widely described as socially awkward” (for whatever that’s worth). “All I can tell you about Daniel is that he lives in Canada,” says Dave Wilson, community manager for GrapheneOS, a world-famous privacy tool and current Mikay project.

inside Cybersecurity Society, the myths surrounding Mikay go beyond celebrity. It could be a ghost or some kind of person, like Satoshi Nakamoto or Ned Ludd. Fans unpack scraps of biographical information; Enemies take swipes at his technical achievements. from He is Daniel Mikay? What does he really want? When I wrote to the email listed on the GrapheneOS website, I heard a response that same day: “The team as a whole will be happy to take questions and answer them together in a collaborative manner. As such, any responses will be from the ‘GrapheneOS Team’ and not directly from Daniel Mikay.” Interesting. Then I reached out to Mikay himself, via LinkedIn, of all places. He declined my request for a formal interview, citing safety concerns. I have since learned that he is 28 years old.

I spoke at length with James Donaldson, Mikay’s former business partner, and against the wishes of Donaldson’s attorney. I also spoke with Mikay’s partners. Over the course of several months, a picture has emerged of something less than a legend, but perhaps more than just a man – and someone who will do whatever it takes to protect his legacy.

“It was a “Funny guy,” Donaldson said. Notice the past tense.

Donaldson claims he first met Mikay sometime between 2011 and 2013, when Mikay joined Toronto Crypto, a small group that would sometimes meet to talk about crypto over beers. (Through his current team, Mikay disputes this. He says he met Donaldson in 2014 and never officially joined the group.) At the time, Mikay was a security researcher and open source developer with an interest in the fast-growing mobile space.

Mikay, according to Donaldson, can be somewhat guarded. He had a crude sense of humor and only intervened when something technical came up. Donaldson recalls the time a troll infiltrated a cryptocurrency group chat and gave them the seemingly impossible task of decrypting a series of messages. Mikay did so eagerly and easily. “I have a knack for spotting people very early, and I knew this guy was great,” Donaldson said. (Through his team, Mikay claims he has no recollection of this event.)

Donaldson, now 42, is a self-taught hacker who never finished school, was briefly homeless, and spent most of his 20s in a “positive punk band.” “It’s nice to be smart,” he told me. “But if you can’t pay your bills, you’re stupid.” He saw an opportunity to make money in Android, which then controlled 80 percent of the smartphone user base. Because the operating system was decentralization, Open source An ecosystem that seems to prioritize commercial appeal and mass adoption On securityAndroid – with a large number of Weaknesses– It has been likened to Swiss cheese. (This was in marked contrast to Apple’s more secure walled garden of iOS.) Donaldson didn’t know how to plug those holes himself, but now he knew someone who could.

The domain “Copperhead.co” was registered by Donaldson in 2014 and merged in 2015 under the names Donaldson and Mikay. The idea was to split the shares equally, with Donaldson as CEO and Michael as de facto head of technology. Their flagship product, CopperheadOS, was an open source operating system focused on so-called Android hardening. Like building a castle and digging moats around a castle, “hardening” a piece of software makes it harder for hackers to access. In the case of CopperheadOS, this meant protecting mobile data by adding layers of security on top of the Android operating system. (Mikay claimed in court filings that he was already working on hardening the Android operating system before meeting Donaldson and that he agreed to the partnership on the express understanding that he would retain control of the resulting operating system.)