About Us

Our Mission

At Ivy Cyber, we believe everyone deserves privacy, security, and the freedom to speak and share — without fear. Our agile team of innovators delivers the tools you need to navigate the challenges of life online and away from the keyboard. Through secure software and hardware under our PrivacySafe brand, as well as expert-led training and education, we empower people and organizations to not only survive, but to thrive in a connected world.

Who We Are

John Kiriakou Joe Rogan
John Kiriakou on Joe Rogan, October 2025

Our leadership consists of cybersecurity researcher Sean O’Brien, CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, political cartoonist Ted Rall, and visionary engineer Mikalai Birukou. We have gathered a team of experts from four continents to create technology and media that educates and empowers people around the world. Our shared vision includes the Ivy Cyber Academy curriculum and the PrivacySafe catalog of secure software and hardware.

Our Accomplishments

We bring together a diverse set of skills, products, and services under the Ivy Cyber umbrella. Our combined accomplishments in the past year include deploying 6 PrivacySafe web apps, onboarding international teams to the PrivacySafe Enterprise Suite, hosting innovative Ivy Cyber Academy seminars on intelligence and surveillance techniques, shipping PrivacySafe secure hardware products, presenting at tech-savvy security conferences, and publishing a wide variety of articles and videos across independent and mainstream media. We speak, act, and build from experience and don’t wait for permission to bring you a freer and more censorship-resistant Internet.

Sean O’Brien

FOUNDER & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Sean O’Brien is an Associate Research Scholar at Yale Law School and Director of the Cybersecurity and Computer Science Programs, as well as Assistant Professor, at Bay Path University. He is founder of Yale Privacy Lab and Deputy Director of the Free Software Foundation. Sean has more than two decades of experience in the private and public sectors in areas such as infrastructure management, open source, and blockchain security. At Ivy Cyber, “Prof Diggity” develops the curriculum of remote classes for Ivy Cyber Academy and drives the direction of the PrivacySafe secure hardware and software products. Sean’s expertise has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, AP, NBC, Popular Science, Forbes, and more.

On the Web:

Yale Privacy Lab

John Kiriakou

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

John Kiriakou is a former high-ranking CIA counter-terrorism officer and the first U.S. official to confirm CIA torture of detainees. Punished for being a whistleblower, he served nearly two years in a federal prison. He also exposed the CIA’s role in the secret rendition and torture of Canadian citizen Maher Arar in Syria. Since his release, Kiriakou has become a leading advocate for transparency, civil liberties, and whistleblower protections. At Ivy Cyber, John applies his unique and hard-won experience to lead resilient security operations, manage organizational risk, and help businesses identify vulnerabilities, understand threats, and respond in real time.

In the Press:

John Kiriakou on Joe Rogan Experience
John Kiriakou
Ted Rall

Ted Rall

CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER

Ted Rall, cartoonist for Forbes, is America’s most widely-syndicated alternative editorial cartoonist. Twice the winner of the RFK Journalism Award and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Rall’s cartoons and illustrations have appeared in Time, Newsweek, USA Today, Rolling Stone, Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice and hundreds of other publications and websites. He is a regular contributor to MAD magazine. Ted drives the creative direction at Ivy Cyber, bringing his graphical expertise to software and media products.

On the Web:

Ted Rall’s Rallblog

Mikalai Birukou

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Mikalai Birukou is an expert engineer of decentralized, privacy-by-design technologies and leads the development of secure software and hardware platforms at Ivy Cyber. He has been building the 3NWeb protocols for several years, whose open source specifications are currently hosted at IEEE SA Open. Mikalai manages engineering of the PrivacySafe Enterprise Suite, which serves as the reference implementation of the 3NWeb standard. He brings deep expertise in network infrastructure and systems architecture to Ivy Cyber, with a mission to create digital spaces where people control their own data and lives.

On the Web:

3NWeb at IEEE SA Open
Mikalai Birukou
Sheree Ip

Sheree Ip

DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION & STRATEGY

Sheree Ip is admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Australia and leads global strategy at Ivy Cyber. She brings over 15 years of global experience in corporate development, legal compliance, and blockchain commercialization. Sheree played a key role in Australia’s first ICO and has contributed to national policy reform through Blockchain Australia. She leads the direction of CertMagi.com, a blockchain-verified platform designed to deploy and authenticate digital assets for Ivy Cyber Academy. Her expertise spans token architecture and regulatory frameworks across sectors including energy, media, and education.

On the Web:

CertMagi.cc

Aliaxandr Smirnou

PRODUCT DESIGN LEAD

Aliaxandr Smirnou is a digital product designer who blends form and function to create seamless, user-centered experiences. In his role at Ivy Cyber, he specializes in interface design that balances aesthetics with usability across platforms and devices. With expertise across a wide variety of UI/UX and graphic design tools, Aliaxandr brings a refined visual language to every project. His work pushes the boundaries of modern user experience: delivering clarity, efficiency, and elegance at every pixel. Passionate about innovation and accessibility, he leads design efforts that translate complex systems into intuitive, meaningful experiences for users worldwide.

On Social Media:

LinkedIn Profile
Aliaxandr Smirnou
Vitaly Kashkel

Vitaly Kashkel

FULL STACK ENGINEERING LEAD

Vitaly Kashkel has many years of experience building web, enterprise, and mobile applications. He has worked in a variety of environments with global teams, driving projects personally and as an essential component of large organizations. He is proficient in modern JavaScript frameworks for frontend development and has strong skills building applications that run on secure systems. Vitaly’s business background enhances his ability to communicate technical ideas clearly to non-technical stakeholders. His responsible, solutions-oriented approach ensures reliable project delivery across Ivy Cyber’s privacy-first apps as part of the PrivacySafe Enterprise Suite.

On Social Media:

LinkedIn Profile
Marcia Wilbur

Marcia K. Wilbur

SOFTWARE DEPLOYMENT LEAD

Marcia K. Wilbur is an accomplished developer, author, and privacy advocate with deep expertise in secure software systems. As Software Deployment Lead at Ivy Cyber, she develops and deploys the PrivacySafe GNU/Linux operating system. Marcia has a long history of digital rights activism and has spoken at Yale Law School on digital rights. Her work includes campaigns with the Free Software Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she contributed to the DMCA FAQs and participated in early DeCSS legal discourse. She specializes in IoT, on-premise integrations, and machine learning applications including computer vision, LLMs, and audio processing.

On the Web:

Marcia’s Projects