A career in journalism can be insecure no matter where you are in the world. There are many reasons why journalists may want to educate themselves on cybersecurity. His interviews and investigative stories may be of interest to nation-state actors, private entities, and other parties. It would be better if you make sure that key information is not leaked or stolen from your device. These are the key reasons why journalists should prioritize cybersecurity.
- Protect your identity. As a journalist, she may need to protect her identity from authorities who might be trying to kill a story when working on an investigative piece. Additionally, journalists working in countries with authoritarian or corrupt governments may want to protect themselves from reprisals.
- Protect your sources. Journalists must use the necessary security tools to protect their sources from state agencies and other threat actors. Government agencies in some parts of the world have been known to force journalists to reveal their sources under penalty of law.
- Avoid data breaches. The dominance of smart devices like computers, tablets, and smartphones has made journalism a risky career choice. These devices can be hacked or infected with spyware and other malware.
So how can journalists protect their stories, identities, and most importantly, their sources? Making cybersecurity a priority. Here are key cybersecurity tools that every journalist should use.
vpn
A virtual private network (VPN) adds privacy and security to an Internet connection on a private or public network, ensuring that you remain anonymous in your online activities. A VPN service will encrypt your connection and route your Internet traffic through a network of secure servers in different parts of the world. As a journalist, staying anonymous and protecting your online activities is crucial, and downloading a simple and reliable VPN can help you with that.
signal messaging app
Created by Open Whisper Systems, Signal is one of the most secure messaging apps available today. As a journalist, you will send text messages and make many voice calls throughout your career. Therefore, you want to make sure that all your communications are protected with end-to-end encryption to prevent government agencies, private entities, and cybercriminals from accessing your messages and calls. Signal ensures that your voice calls and text messages are secure.
Tor Browser
Tor, short for The Onion Router, is a popular web browser that routes your Internet traffic through a series of servers on the Tor network. Tor Browser protects your internet traffic from anyone who might be interested in monitoring your online activity. Tor Browser allows you to access parts of the Internet that are not indexed by Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other conventional web search engines.
Journalism can be a dangerous career. Journalists must take extra cybersecurity precautions to protect themselves and be effective in their jobs as government and industry watchdogs. There is a wide range of cybersecurity tools that allow journalists to work “off the grid”, communicate with their sources securely and prevent data leaks.
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