A workshop aimed at creating awareness among journalists about digital security and safety was conducted in Mumbai on Friday.
The workshop, organised by The Tor Project, a U.S.-based non-profit, along with Network of Women in Media, India, witnessed participation from employees of various media organisations.
“Be it physical security or digital, journalists are always at risk, which can be minimised by taking a few measures to prevent data from being circulated to an unknown person or organisation,” said Gustavo Gus, Community Liaison, The Tor Project.
He said it is important to make a security plan beforehand by determining what digital assets need to be protected, and how.
Locks and backups
“It is really important to keep devices updated and not unlocked. Creating backups and saving two copies of all data is essential. Also, it is not advisable to plug any random USB device into computers, download any files or click any links from unknown sources,” Mr. Gus said. The workshop also touched upon the precautions to be undertaken while setting and using passwords.
“Generally people have the tendency to set passwords with digits, letters and symbols believing it to be safe but it can also be cracked. One should ideally use ‘passphrases’, which is basically a long phrase, as a password. Also, a password manager is useful to keep other passwords safe within its database,” Mr. Gus said, adding that it was advisable for journalists to use different emails for work-related and personal use.
Sharing information
Talking about solutions for safe sharing of information, Mr. Gus said, “One can use ‘Signal’, which is a free software with an end-to-end encryption available on Play store. Also, the ‘Tor browser’ is useful as it cannot trace other websites one visits and does not store browser history.”
