Wikileaks In A Box: SecureDrop Is WhistleBlower Communication Tool For Media

[bananas]

Source: Tech Crunch

In an effort to protect government whistleblowers from unprecedented levels of surveillance, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has launched SecureDrop, an anonymous submission tool for secure communications between sources and journalists. SecureDrop accepts encrypted documents and tips from sources and facilitates communication without putting journalists in jeopardy of having to reveal sources under the threat of imprisonment.

The need for security is heightened given the Obama Administration’s aggressive prosecution of leakers under the Espionage act. Last Spring, for instance, the Justice Department seized the phone records of AP journalists involved in reporting a foiled bomb plot in Yemen.

“One of the reasons that the Obama administration has prosecuted so many whistleblowers is that there’s an easy way to find digital trails of how journalists meet sources and talk to them,” said Freedom of the Press Foundation Executive Director, Trevor Timm. “We need to figure out a way for journalists to talk to sources without that fear.”

SecureDrop was originally the project of fallen hacktivist, Aaron Swartz (then called DeadDrop). The project has since been updated to account for recent National Security Agency spying revelations, though the organization reminds reporters than nothing is 100% secure. The code base is open source and has been vetted by security experts from the University of Washington [PDF].

Freedom of the Press Foundation has even offered to help outlets install the rather complex encryption tool. Learn more about it here.

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/wikileaks-in-a-box-securedrop-is-whistleblower-communication-tool-for-media/

[bananas]

1. Aaron Swartz's legacy lives on: SecureDrop is a WikiLeaks for any journalist

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/16/4843484/securedrop-aaron-swartz-freedom-of-the-press-dead-drop-wikileaks

Aaron Swartz's legacy lives on: SecureDrop is a WikiLeaks for any journalist

By Sean Hollister on October 16, 2013 12:13 am

In May, The New Yorker revealed what hacktivist Aaron Swartz was building before his untimely death: an encrypted dead drop system that would whistleblowers leak documents to journalists without fear of exposing their identity. The New Yorker launched its own implementation, Strongbox, and other media outlets were free to do the same — but in August, noted security researchers at the University of Washington reported that DeadDrop wasn't quite ready for primetime, citing issues installing and using the software among many other things.That's where Aaron Swartz's legacy stood — until today.

Today, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has announced that it has taken over the project, specifically hiring computer security expert James Dolan full-time to maintain the code, help media organizations install the software, and teach them how to use it well. The organization plans to address "virtually all" of the recommendations made by the University of Washington security researchers, and says it's already addressed a number of specific issues that were pointed out. While the Freedom of the Press Foundation is clear that SecureDrop isn't 100 percent secure, but the organization says that it's the safest method for communicating with anonymous sources yet, and hopes to make it safer still. If you're interested, you can contribute to Aaron Swartz's open-source legacy at this Github repository.

[Mnemosyne]

2. K&R nt

[ucrdem]

3. Ellsberg & Greenwald *PROMISE* to keep your secrets

while fronting an outfit called Freedom of the Press Foundation. Check.

[dballance]

4. I take it given your snark you don't believe they'll keep secrets?

What is your rationale for coming to such a conclusion?

[JimDandy]

5. Correct link to learn more about it here:

https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/securedrop#faq

[jsr]

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