---
title: 'About Me'
url: 'https://h3artbl33d.nl/about'
markdown: 'https://h3artbl33d.nl/about.md'
date: '2026-07-15'
description: 'Introduction Nice to meet you. I am Jeroen and go by the handle h3artbl33d. I am a Unix system engineer during the day, hacker by night. Dutch nationality, late-30s, addicted to coffee and philosophy. I (deeply) value ethics, human rights and respect. In the modern era, values like privacy and free…'
---

# About Me

### Introduction

Nice to meet you. I am Jeroen and go by the handle h3artbl33d. I am a Unix system engineer during the day, hacker by night. Dutch nationality, late-30s, addicted to coffee and philosophy. I (deeply) value ethics, human rights and respect. In the modern era, values like privacy and freedom are under constant attack. I am hugely opposed to this and try to help out wherever I can for a more humane world.

### Stats

- **Age:** late thirties
- **Nationality:** Dutch
- **Location:** the Netherlands
- **Fuel:** Proper coffee
- **Marital status:** Occupied

### What I do

- **Work:** Founder of a B2B IT provider.
- **Hobbies:** Computers, infrastructure, security research, reading, TV series, cooking, gardening, fighting sports, philosophy and psychology.
- **Languages:** Dutch, English, (some basic) German and Swedish.

### Technical skills

- **Operating systems:** OpenBSD, HardenedBSD, GrapheneOS, Linux (various distros including CloudLinux, EL, Arch, Alpine, Slackware)
- **Security:** Defense in depth, hardening, exploit mitigations, compliance, monitoring
- **Automation:** Ansible, shell scripts
- **Development:** PHP, Python, Perl, scripting

### Community involvement

- Founder and primary admin of [Exquisite.social](https://exquisite.social) and [Exquisite.tube](https://exquisite.tube) - which are, respectively: Mastodon and Peertube. They are federated alternatives for big tech platforms.
- Board member and chief infrastructure with [EuroBSDcon](https://eurobsdcon.org).
- Board member and co-founder of [BSD-NL](https://bsdnl.nl/).
- Board member, technical guy, pack mule and helping hand for a foundation against poverty.

### Talks

- Liberating the social web using BSD - given together with [Stefano](https://stefanomarinelli.it) at EuroBSDCon 2025, Zagreb, Croatia
- Defending the Democracy using BSD - given at EuroBSDCon 2023, Coimbra, Portugal
- Defending the Democracy using BSD - given at NLUUG 2023, Utrecht, Netherlands
- OpenBSD: Security in a hostile world - given at DBLUG 2019, Den Bosch, Netherlands

### Trivia

- I like to selfhost everything
- I have found and responsibly disclosed numerous security vulnerabilities
- I have a propedeuse in psychology

### This server

This is a tiny OpenBSD VM (1C, 2G, 50GB), with [OpenBSD.Amsterdam](https://openbsd.amsterdam). It runs a couple of websites and an email stack (OpenSMTPD, Dovecot, Rspamd).

### Contact me

- **[Mail](mailto:jeroen@ilikemyprivacy.nl)**
- **[Signal](https://signal.me/#eu/oACbLy9ysAyqagZqj1eV3at3qiqGUpty6DSOwW_tzQ1lbZodAmhFkapeBDkryY3r)**
- **[Mastodon](https://exquisite.social/@h3artbl33d)**

---

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