Why journalists should be thinking about information security and source protection

Originally published on journalism.co.uk, August 2016

Silkie Carlo, policy officer at Liberty, explains the importance of security for journalists, and what the introduction of the Investigatory Powers Bill means for them

By Caroline Scott

The Investigatory Powers Bill, introduced to the House of Commons on 1 March 2016, has provided a new framework to “govern the use and oversight of investigatory powers by law enforcement and the security and intelligence agencies,” but what does this mean for the work of investigative journalists?

Silkie Carlo, policy officer at Liberty and co-author of Information Security for Journalists, told Journalism.co.uk that reporters should be prepared for the changing working environment in the UK that comes with the update in the law.

“Journalists have to be aware that if they are doing any stories that could be of interest to the police or the security agencies, they do face a real risk of being intercepted, and that’s all made possible by this new piece of legislation that’s going through at the moment,” she said.

As the Investigatory Powers Bill can give the police and security services the ability to legally access journalists’ work, Carlo noted that sources may become aware that they are not communicating with the journalists in full confidentiality.

Recent research from the University of Sussex has found the current surveillance threats to journalists “may all but eliminate” confidential sources for investigative reporting.

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear? Think again.

This curious aphorism has, at times, threatened to deaden the debate on privacy that arose since Snowden blew the whistle on transnational mass surveillance. The submissive posture of ‘I have nothing to hide and therefore nothing to fear’ is a popular resort, especially for those avoidant of critical thought – perhaps due to their subjection to a surveillance system so powerful, so omniscient, so secret, and so unknowingly invading their world, that it had only been encountered, until now, as a fearful thought experiment in dystopian fiction. Some, not least the political class, seem unable to deal with the reality.

Accordingly, ‘nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ is the kind of eerie statement you would expect to hear only in a totalitarian regime, and perhaps obediently echoed by its brainwashed subjects who you, as the privileged, educated, and valued citizen of a Western democracy, would pity. “We” have had our debates on individual liberty, privacy, democratic practices and balances of governmental power. We have responded to tyrannical tragedies of political history, we have evolved with robust constitutions, we have proudly committed to human rights acts, and we have expected them to be followed closely.

But it seems that with the birth of the New World, the digital world, we will see the same struggle between power and liberty that the Old World has endured for all civilisation. The New World seems to be a tabula rasa, with the hard lessons gained about power, politics and human nature momentarily forgotten and constitutional values trampled in the race to dominate and exploit the new abstract terrain.

A person parroting that they have ‘nothing to hide’ and therefore ‘nothing to fear’ is saying something so void, that it doesn’t necessarily mean they are pro-mass surveillance. It means that they are not anti-mass surveillance. It means that, realising it has been imposed on their life, the lives of all those they love and care about, and the lives of people further afar who they may never meet, they consider themselves not personally at risk and therefore have abstained from further critical analysis. Effectively, they are proclaiming a commitment to unconditionally submit.

Let’s respond to the ‘nothing to hide’ aphorism in the following ten points.

Just published: ‘Information Security for Journalists’

I have recently written Information Security for Journalists which is available freely here: http://tcij.org/resources/handbooks/infosec This handbook, commissioned and now published by the Centre for Investigative Journalism, is designed to educate serious investigative journalists in the largely invisible risks to the security of their information and communications. It offers comprehensive step-by-step instructions in measures one can take to defend against these threats, for different levels of risk. It is irresponsible if not impossible to conduct serious investigative journalism without an awareness of information security. I hope that you find this handbook useful, or can share it with those who might. A second edition will follow soon as we work on new ‘infosec’ strategies and respond to public feedback. The handbook is also being translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Portugese, Spanish, and other languages. I am aware of various high risk groups of sources courageously speaking out now or considering speaking out – particularly in areas where official channels consistently fail. Journalists (and indeed a select few politicians) working on these cases absolutely must protect their sources, their stories, and themselves. Getting in touch It is my pleasure to offer confidential, voluntary support to the great journalists and sources who need it most. You are most welcome to get in touch with me at silkiecarlo@gmail.com – I will do my best to help. I use email encryption and you can find my key here (updated Oct 2014) or on the public keyserver. Should anyone who is not currently using encryption wish to get in touch anonymously, you can download the anonymising Tor browser, and use that browser to start up an anonymous email account (with a provider who does not require a phone number or similar for verification – try Yandex or GMX).