Communications security for journalists

Communications security for journalists Ian Brown Hidden Footprints Ltd.

Introduction
A rough guide to the Internet and cryptography
Secure Web-based e-mail
Pretty Good Privacy – PGP
Securing phone calls
Traffic analysis
Freedom

The Internet
All data – e-mail, Web pages, files – is sent using the Internet Protocol (IP)
This chops up information into small ‘packets’ that can flow by many routes across the Internet
Web and mail servers can be anywhere on the Internet

Internet surveillance
Packets can be monitored at many points – from you to ISP, on their network, en route to destination
Servers can also monitor messages, Web pages visited, etc.
Even your PC is vulnerable

Cryptography
Fundamental technology to protect information
Data is encrypted and decrypted using secret “keys”
Public-key cryptography uses a pair of keys: one public, one private
You can also digitally sign information
In common use as SSL

Secure e-mail
Messages travel through your ISP’s mail server, and wait at the recipient’s ISP until collected
Encryption should be end-to-end
PGP most commonly used

An encrypted message

Secure Web mail
Even if accessed using SSL, messages still sit unprotected at most Web mail servers like Hotmail
Hushmail runs Java applet on your computer than encrypts end-to-end if your correspondent also uses the service

Secure phone calls
Starium producing Palm-sized voice encryptor
Automatically protects calls to other Starium users
$699 

Traffic analysis
Starium and PGP don’t hide who you are talking to, and when
This leaves a nasty trail for investigators to follow to both of you
RIP allows relatively easy access to traffic logs
Also reveals Web sites you have visited

Web server logs
17:gateway1.gsi.gov.uk - - [08/May/2000:11:42:44 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0200-0500/threads.html HTTP/1.0" 200 229936
17:gateway1.gsi.gov.uk - - [08/May/2000:11:43:14 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0200-0500/msg01632.html HTTP/1.0" 200 4944
17:legion.dera.gov.uk - - [08/May/2000:15:37:31 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0898-1198/msg00195.html HTTP/1.0" 200 6869
17:horde.dera.gov.uk - - [09/May/2000:09:21:44 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0799-1099/msg00946.html HTTP/1.0" 200 3323
17:horde.dera.gov.uk - - [09/May/2000:10:33:23 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/ HTTP/1.0" 200 5118
20:gatekeeper.hertscc.gov.uk - - [05/Jun/2000:17:12:22 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/pimms/index.html HTTP/1.0" 200 353
20:gatekeeper.hertscc.gov.uk - - [05/Jun/2000:17:12:23 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/pimms/toc.html HTTP/1.0" 200 1383
20:gatekeeper.hertscc.gov.uk - - [05/Jun/2000:17:12:24 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/pimms/bottle.gif HTTP/1.0" 200 9499
20:gateway.bradford.gov.uk - - [06/Jun/2000:08:42:09 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0399-0699/msg00663.html HTTP/1.1" 200 427
20:gatekeeper.bournemouth.gov.uk - - [08/Jun/2000:00:42:40 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0898-1198/msg00002.html HTTP/1.0"
21:mail.braintree.gov.uk - - [16/Jun/2000:11:18:06 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/1199-0100/msg00266.html HTTP/1.0" 200 3661
22:wp.eris.dera.gov.uk - - [13/Jul/2000:11:24:42 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0799-1099/msg00508.html HTTP/1.0" 200 4265
22:gtfw1.doh.gov.uk - - [14/Jul/2000:19:02:16 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/l HTTP/1.0" 404 244
22:gtfw1.doh.gov.uk - - [14/Jul/2000:19:02:25 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto HTTP/1.0" 302 411
22:gatekeeper.bournemouth.gov.uk - - [16/Jul/2000:08:24:10 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/1198-0299/msg00293.html HTTP/1.0"
6:shadow.dera.gov.uk - - [05/Apr/2000:14:18:32 +0100] "GET /staff/i.brown/archives/ukcrypto/old/msg00112.html HTTP/1.0" 200 7698
6:proxy.hullcc.gov.uk - - [05/Apr/2000:16:50:21 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0497-1097/msg00014.html HTTP/1.0" 200 3725
7:Bouncer.nics.gov.uk - - [11/Apr/2000:10:31:17 +0100] "GET /staff/i.brown/archives/ukcrypto/1198-0299/msg00138.html HTTP/1.0" 200 4381
7:gateway1.gsi.gov.uk - - [11/Apr/2000:12:33:18 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0200-0500/threads.html HTTP/1.0" 200 142389
7:gateway1.gsi.gov.uk - - [11/Apr/2000:14:35:19 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0200-0500/threads.html HTTP/1.0" 200 142674
7:gtfw1.doh.gov.uk - - [12/Apr/2000:11:13:31 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0497-1097/msg00245.html HTTP/1.0" 200 4714
7:gtfw1.doh.gov.uk - - [12/Apr/2000:11:14:33 +0100] "GET /staff/I.Brown/archives/ukcrypto/0497-1097/msg00234.html HTTP/1.0" 200 4811

Freedom from ZeroKnowledge Systems can provide content and traffic analysis protection over the Internet
Automatically reroutes your traffic through the encrypted Freedom network
Works best with support at both ends

Freedom

Marked files and messages
Be very careful about keeping original messages and files from sources
They contain all sorts of hints that may lead back to their sender
Fingerprints may have been subtly inserted
Use secure delete; remember backups

E-mail trails Messages are full of clues about their origins

Tracing IP addresses

Conclusions
Communications security is difficult!
Traffic data may be more important than content
Security software will get better
Legal environment may get worse

Links
http://www.pgp.com/
http://www.hushmail.com/
http://www.starium.com/
http://www.freedom.net/
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/I.Brown/

Communications security for journalists

by Ian Brown on May 25, 2008

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Communications security for journalists — Presentation Transcript