It would be shortsighted for reporters and news organizations to continue to think of encryption and other privacy tools as essential only for those journalists hoping to hear from the next Snowden. Fortunately, it appears 2015 may be the year that message sinks in.
Yes, I understand why passwords are universally despised: the strains they put on our memory, the endless demand to update them, their sheer number. I hate them, too. But there is more to passwords than their annoyance. In our authorship of them, in the fact that we construct them so that we (and only we) will remember them, they take on secret lives.
Approach information security in the same way you approach physical security. This means starting with a risk assessment and an emergency plan. For example, if you are concerned that you might be hauled and interrogated and made to surrender your password, you might use encrypted communication to send all sensitive information outside the country or wipe all contacts from your computer. You might even choose to do your reporting the old-fashioned way, using a notepad and a pen.
A hacker broke into HealthCare.gov and installed malicious software on one of its servers in the first successful breach of the health insurance exchange, federal officials said Thursday.
WIRED’s James Bamford spent three days with Edward Snowden, the most time any journalist has spent with Snowden since he arrived in Russia in June 2013.
Interested in keeping yourself and your sources safe online?
Join us in D.C. on Aug. 23 for ONA dCamp: Digital Security, a full day design camp which will explore how journalists can protect their work.
Facilitators include staff from the International Center for Journalists, New York Times, ProPublica, Reporters Without Borders, Washington Post and more.
There are any number of pressing media issues in the digital age -- we're sure you can come up with a handful without breaking a sweat. ONA Issues is your platform to define them, share them, explore them and get a better fix on how they impact the work you do. Here we'll look to you for your perspectives and conversations and help jump-start discussions by posting insightful reporting, commentary and analysis from anywhere and everywhere. We're here to listen and learn. Join us.
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