When it comes to developing stories, you may need to collaborate with your peers. If you ever used Slack, you know how conventient it is. But what about security?

Unfortunately, not every tool is made equal. Apps like Slack and Rocket does not feature end-to-end encryption. It means that a third-party somewhere along the way may hand over the chat logs to the authorities when a warrant is produced.

SpiderOak Semaphor is a zero-knowledge collaboration tool that features end-to-end encryption. You can chat and share files with multiple partners on this platform privately, as messages can only be decrypted by your partners.

By following this guide, you will be able to install Sempahor on your PC. Click here to access the instructions

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Not every cloud-based file storage solutions are made equal. Although almost each of them uses encryption to transmit and store your files, the devil is in the details.

Popular file storage services, such as Dropbox, have access to the file decryption keys. In other words, staff can and do access your files for things like detecting pirated media in your folders, or fulfiling law encforcement requests when being served with a warrant.

Fortunately, zero-knowledge, end-to-end encryption solves this problem. Our new guide will walk you through the process of setting up sync.com. It is an easy-to-use, zero-knowledge file storage solution that keeps your files secure and private.

Click here to access our latest guide

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The current legislation in Australia requires service provides to retain metadata for two years. In parallel, everything you type into the search bar on Google or Bing is retained along with your IP address and other relevant details. Therefore, your Internet browsing activity can be reconstructed and linked back to you by correlating the different datasets with each other.

To avoid these data correlation issues, you can switch to a search engine that promises not to retain any logs of your search queries. Read our latest guide for search engines that does not collect and retain anything of your search activity.

Photo courtesy of Rainer Hungershausen

Tiny USB drives are forgotten in cafés, and prone to pickpocketing. By encrypting your portable devices, your files - and ultimately your sources - can remain safe and secure, in case your USB device vanishes into thin air.

BitLocker is an easy way to encrypt external USB sticks and hard disks. It is built-into Windows and super-easy to enable.

Follow our latest guide on USB drive encryption to encrypt your devices today

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Hard drive encryption protects from two things. Firstly, nobody can tamper with your computer (e.g. install backdoors) if you leave it unattended. Secondly, your files remain secure in case the laptop is stolen.

There are many situations these could happen:

• You are staying in a hotel and the laptop is left in your room unattended
• Someone breaks into your apartment or office
• The laptop is left in the trunk of the car and someone breaks into it
• Someone snatches the device from your hands, or robs you
• You are deliberately put into a situation that separates you from your device. For example a thorough security check at the airport

Check out our latest guide on configuring full disk encryption on your Windows PC

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Using Skype for video calls is a bad idea. It used to be encrypted, but since Microsoft purchased them they broke the crypto. In fact, the company is willing to hand over the voice and video recordings to various law enforcement agencies without a warrant.

The solution to this problem is end-to-end encryption again. Wire is an easy to use app that encrypts video calls just like that. It is super easy to use and they are relatively open about the underlying technology.

Check out our latest addition to the guides here on secure video calls

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One method to monitor your activities online as well as your computer is backdoors on your computer. Since the breaches of the Hacking Team and FinFisher, or news from the FBI, we know that certain governmental organisations are willing to exploit computers and smartphones to install backdoors on them.

Check out the latest addition to the guides on anti-malware and anti-exploit software.

Reporters are one of the bastions of democracy, as they could expose the wrongdoings of governments, corporates or well-connected individuals affecting the many. We would have never learned about the Watergate, the NSA's mass surveillance program or the detention camps of Australia without them.

Journalists rely on various sources of information to build a story of public interest. At this very moment, an army of them are relentlessly crunching open data, obtaining documents and interviewing whistleblowers for the greater good.

Circumvention of Legal Protections

The protection of information sources is a privilege of journalists all around the world. Legislations assure that authorities cannot reveal the sources, so these articles will not be suppressed. Unfortunately, there is a worrying trend of these legal safeguards are being circumvented. The FBI apparently has its ways to work around laws protecting sources, and Australia also has a precedent of bending the rules.

Technical Challenges

With the advent of computers and smartphones, it is getting more and more challenging to keep our secrets. Governments are heavily investing in surveillance programmes to get the information they need.

With the legal protections shrinking and the technical disparity widening, the protection of information sources is more challenging than ever.

Giving the Control Back

The only person who can ultimately protect them is You, the reporter.

Luckily, a growing selection of applications is available at your disposal to do so. On the other hand, it can be confusing to choose the right tool, in addition to installing and using them.

We, a couple of information security experts, recognised these problems. So we thought a website dedicated just for reporters could help you to select the best tools and practices matching your situation. We named the website as Privacy for Journalists and our goal is to help the Australian journalist community with defending their information sources.

Privacy for Journalists Website

On the main website (privacyforjournalists.org.au), we provide a simple-to-understand threat modeling to help you select the appropriate tools and practices. We have numerous illustrated guides for helping you install and use these tools. We also provide a collection of links pointing to security tips, legislations, Meetups, associations and other events aiming to defend your privacy.

The blog on (privacyforjournalists.org.au/blog) will announce changes to existing and new content to the site. Make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed to not miss any changes.

Community

The site features a Wiki (wiki.privacyforjournalists.org.au) for community-generated content. We aim to collect the various metadata legislations and their practical effects on you. Also, we have a section with real-life scenarios from real journalists and matching recommendations made by technical experts.

The community is getting together on Slack, where we can discuss best practices with each other. Head on to slack.privacyforjournalists.org.au for joining the conversation with other journalists and information security experts.