Meet Edward Snowden's Favorite Encryption Programmer
Everything Werner Koch needs to prevent the U.S. National Security Agency, NSA, from properly doing its job is right here in a 10-square-meter room in a basement in Erkrath, a small town outside of Düsseldorf.
Koch opens his front door and invites us into his home. The first thing we see are children's drawings plastering the wall. Downstairs is his company "headquarters," all 10 square meters of it. It's a one-man show. And yet financially, things are looking good. "There is finally enough money in my account," he says.
Until a few months ago, that wasn't the case. Everything changed when Koch, 53, attended an event held late last year in Hamburg. He was one of over 3,000 people in a conference hall. Two experts on stage explained in detail how the NSA spies on ordinary citizens and which technological obstacles it can avoid while doing so. All of a sudden, the speaker asked: "Is Werner Koch in the audience? Could you please stand up?"
