New Organization Hangs Sign: 'Whistleblowers Welcome'

In the post-Snowden age of NSA surveillance and what many see as the Obama administration's targeted attack on leakers and press freedoms, the group's straightforward message is no secret: “Whistleblowers Welcome at ExposeFacts.org.”

A project of the Institute for Public Accuracy, the new group's primary purpose will be to facilitate the leaking of corporate or government malfeasance by giving potential whistleblowers a place to submit sensitive documents and/or creating a secure line between such individuals and journalists working in the public interest.

New Organization Hangs Sign: 'Whistleblowers Welcome'

This is a welcome addition to wikileaks however I do have trouble understanding how, in this day and age, it can be truly secure and safe.

They say they will be using a system called "Secure Drop" which the article quotes:

While no software can provide an ironclad guarantee of confidentiality, ExposeFacts—assisted by the Freedom of the Press Foundation and its “SecureDrop” whistleblower submission system—is utilizing the latest technology on behalf of anonymity for anyone submitting materials via the ExposeFacts.org website. As journalists we are committed to the goal of protecting the identity of every source who wishes to remain anonymous.

Wouldn't it require both secure software and secure hardware. From my limited understanding there is no such thing as secure hardware any longer.

I suppose the most important contribution this outfit may make is in the freedom of press arena. The public member of ExposeFacts are showing a great deal of courage in these security state times and deserve our gratitude and emulation.

Well, you are correct. Assuming that the connection is perfectly secure (which is impossible), and it is impossible to trace back who sent what to whom (which it is not), then still it would be a possibility for a government or other body with malevolent intentions to hack the hardware of the leaker. Or simply shoulder surf.

Lately, I am not sure of privacy whatsoever. I may use Tor all the time, on an Arch Linux system with full-disk encryption, that guarantees virtually nothing these days.

a reply to: loremipsum

Shoulder Surf? Not famaliar with the term. Do you mean watch over other people's shoulder's? I can't keep up with the rapidly changing vernacular without a cheat sheet.

a reply to: FyreByrd
Not sure what you mean about insecure hardware.

The idea is that whistleblowers can provide documents while remaining anonymous. They can do this now with Tor, but "secureDrop" is a souped-up implementation of Tor that has extra features.

The problem I see is that it's based in the USA, so any more Snowden like leaks can't be leaked through such an organization which can be ordered by a secret court to not reveal the disclosed information. In other words, you could submit it, but it might never see the light of day. Someone suggested Iceland may have fewer problems in this regard since it's supposed to be out of reach of the secret courts.

Who made the site? And who created secure drop?

If it was an agency of TPTB they can still suppress the info b4 it got onto site

They may not find the person who gave info up threw said channels as a posters had said

But still got the info

a reply to: FyreByrd

With the speed at which WikiLeaks and others like Greenwald release information, sounds like a "honey-pot" to me ;-) How can anyone call it secure? LOL If if there were a hundred nodes, bouncing back and forth between ground stations and satellites, "someone, somewhere" is controlling those nodes. They can tell you there are no logs, but there are always logs. There are logs at all the other portals and ISP's and time based auditing to capture transmission paths to target a source IP wouldn't be really all that difficult, it's just a lot of data.

They would be better off giving a physical mailing address and to use UPS, DHS or Fedex, maybe even government snail mail or set up covert drop locations in every major city. Convenience kills security.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: FyreByrd

Haha, indeed. Shoulder surfing is watching what people are doing over their shoulder.

a reply to: FyreByrd

A change in outlook is called for. Instead of seeing surveillance as a problem, see it as a blessing. They have to listen, it's their job. They can't answer back, they're meant to be covert. Tell them everything the senior staff don't want them to hear. Use surveillance to create disharmony within the ranks of the traitor/spooks. God knows it's easy. They all know they can't trust anyone they work with. Play on that and do to them what they are trying to do to others. Mess with their heads, they're sitting ducks.