Who created WikiScanner, the tool linking anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations?

WikiScanner, the tool linking anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations, was created by Virgil Griffith.

Griffith released WikiScanner in August 2007. The tool cross-referenced anonymous Wikipedia edits with the organizations associated with the edits’ originating IP-address blocks. It could therefore reveal that edits made without a user account appeared to come from networks belonging to companies, governments, campaigns, or other institutions.

WikiScanner did not identify the individual person behind an edit, and it did not analyze edits made under registered usernames. Its results showed an apparent organizational source based on IP-registration data, not proof that the organization officially authorized or endorsed the contribution. That distinction is a common source of confusion.

The project attracted major attention because it made institutional editing easier to investigate. Its database reportedly contained about 34 million anonymous edits from early Wikipedia history and linked them to more than 187,000 organizations. The original service later became unavailable, but WikiScanner remains an influential example of using public data to study Wikipedia’s editing ecosystem. The alternative names in the question were prominent figures or Wikipedia-related developers, not the tool’s creator.