Service for journalists

How can you encrypt e-mail communications? How can you preserve anonymity online? How can you protect the identity of whistleblowers? These are some of questions that will be answered at three CryptoParty side events designed especially for journalists at this year’s Global Media Forum.

The why and how of encryption

Jochim Rolf Selzer is a co-founder of the CryptoParties based in Cologne and Bonn, Germany. "It’s possible to tap communications, for example, by intercepting a computer on its way to delivery, and replacing it with a nearly identical device,“ he explains. That might sound incredible, but he insists, “It’s possible! Such attacks are aimed quite specifically at certain people. In principle, there’s a way around any type of protection.” In his free time, the 45-year-old Internet administrator has been holding CryptoParties with other volunteers since 2013. "Our main goal is to explain to people in as practical a way as possible how to encrypt their e-mails, data and chats and how to securely manage their online passwords.”

For journalists they go into more depth, says Selzer, “because data protection and protecting sources are everyday matters in their line of work.” He warns people not to “jump on every new bandwagon”, saying that he and his colleagues prefer to rely on tried and trusted technologies at their informative events. “We’re very cautious,” he says, “and select only software we can trust.” That of course also means staying on top of the latest developments and constantly well-informed.

Preserving protection online

The series of CryptoParties at the Global Media Forum will focus on routine journalistic work. “We always tell our participants that they need to research the trustworthiness of all the sources they use.” That’s particularly true for whistleblowers. Journalists should have some technical background understanding, says Selzer. “If he or she isn’t sure about the technology – if they don’t know how or why an encryption algorithm works – then it’s better not to touch it to avoid getting burned.” Mistakes can have serious consequences. “Anyone who recommends half-baked encryption technology, for dissidents for example, is putting people’s lives at risk.”

Predicting the future is no easy task for Selzer, who says he never could have imagined the technological developments that have occurred so far. “We vastly underestimated surveillance technology,” he says. “Until a year ago, we considered the warnings by alarmists to be crazy and chalked it all up to wild conspiracy theories. And now? Their warnings turned out to be true. I don’t dare to think more than a year into the future.”