Virgil Griffith was born in 1983 and grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He graduated from the Alabama School of Math and Science in 2002 before studying cognitive science at the University of Alabama.
On the 14th of August 2007, Griffith released WikiScanner to track Wikipedia edits back to their source IP addresses. Two years later, he designed the Tor2web proxy alongside Aaron Swartz to bridge anonymous networks with standard web browsers.
Agents alleged that Virgil Griffith provided highly technical information knowing it could help North Korea launder money. He discussed means for evading economic sanctions during his return to the United States after visiting Pyongyang.
Sentencing occurred on the 12th of April 2022, resulting in sixty-three months imprisonment for conspiring to violate laws relating to money laundering using cryptocurrency and sanctions related to North Korea. Ten months counted as time served from pre-trial detention.
Virgil Griffith was released from prison on the 9th of April 2025 after serving his sentence at FCI Allenwood Low in Pennsylvania and FCI Milan in Michigan. The United States Department Commerce subsequently imposed a ten-year export privilege ban on him.