Open Society Foundations fellow Christopher Soghoian opined for the New York Times Oct. 26 about protecting anonymous sources and computer security. The Open Society Foundations is funded by George Soros.
Soghoian argued for journalists to understand and employ better and more secure forms of communications when dealing with anonymous sources in order to better protect them — specifically with whistleblowers Otherwise, Soghoian indicated, journalists are leaving sources out to be exposed: Among a variety of ways sources could be identified include wiretapping, subpoenas and message interception, according to Soghoian.
Even Skype can be monitored, he wrote. “Skype is slightly more secure than phones but is by no means safe from snooping — which can be done with commercially available interception software.” Further, Soghoian called for journalists to be instructed on computer security and praised WikiLeaks as “a beacon of best practices” in “operational security.”
“Until journalists take their security obligations seriously, it will be safer to leak something to WikiLeaks — or groups like it — than to the mainstream press,” he wrote.
Read his full op-ed here.