Encryption has become a vital part of the modern journalist’s toolkit. Not only are encrypted communications a vital part of keeping journalists safe. They’re also essential if you take the protection of sources seriously. After all, when you send unencrypted messages online there’s no guarantee that other people aren’t looking. For those new to the idea of encryption, think of it like this: It’s like sending a postcard, where you have no way of stopping anyone from reading it along the way. But when you encrypt your messages it’s like putting that postcard in an envelope. Thus, it becomes much harder for someone to snoop on your correspondence.
There are all sorts of different options when it comes to encrypting your online communications. Some are incredibly simple, others can be downright intimidating due to their complexity. But don’t let the complexity frighten you, encryption can be easy once you get the hang of it; you might even be using some form of encrypted messaging without even knowing it.
If you want to go down the most straightforward route, Whatsapp is the place to go. Messages are encrypted by default and overall the encryption methods they use are solid. Don’t let the fact that Facebook owns the company frighten you, their encryption is still good enough that intelligence agencies complain about it.
Signal
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You can also verify your contacts with a special code to make sure you’re talking to the person you think you’re talking to. Even Edward Snowden claims to use Signal every day, which serves as something of a seal of approval. If it’s safe enough for a former CIA contractor, it’s probably safe enough for you.
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PGP
PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy, is an encryption program that is mainly used for encrypting e-mail. Some people might find it a bit intimidating. With PGP you have to start thinking about private and public keys (essentially, bits of code that you use to encrypt and decrypt your e-mails). But if you’re interested in trying PGP I highly recommend you carefully read a ‘noobs PGP guide’. You can find many online.
There are also several companies working on making encrypted e-mail more user-friendly. One such company is Mailpile, although as of this writing their software is limited to people who know how to use Linux.
TOR
TOR is particularly useful if you want to encrypt your internet usage in general. Although it certainly can be used to access the seedy underworld of the internet commonly referred to as the dark web, it is also used by activists and journalists around the globe to access information that for whatever reason, might be restricted in their particular situation.
TOR has a special browser bundle that makes accessing TOR as simple as opening a normal browser. In fact, you might recognise that its design is based on the Firefox browser, and it’s available for PC, Mac and Linux. The main drawback of using TOR is that it’s noticeably slower than your average
VPNs
If you want to add an extra layer of security to your internet using habits, using a VPN is probably a good idea. A VPN will direct your web traffic through an alternate IP address making it just a little bit more difficult to identify where it’s coming from.
There are too many options for VPN’s to mention, again from the very simple to the very complicated. S
We have to talk about Facebook because it’s become the big elephant in the room. Most people can probably agree that Facebook is just the worst in terms of security and privacy. It’s a platform that should generally be avoided if you want to be confident that you are communicating securely.
If you do use Facebook as a social platform, never use it to communicate with an anonymous source. If you need to discuss something on Facebook that’s confidential, and it can’t be discussed somewhere else (for example if your source is not particularly “tech savvy”), try to meet them in person or arrange a phone call. It might sound excessive, but they’ll thank you for it in the long run.
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