Aaron Swartz’s last gift to journalism and online privacy finds a new home

[Luminous Animal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/15/aaron-swartzs-last-gift-to-journalism-and-online-privacy-finds-a-new-home/

Before Aaron Swartz's suicide in January, he had nearly completed work with Wired's Kevin Poulsen on a secure system to accept messages and documents from anonymous sources over the Internet. The result of that effort was DeadDrop, an open- source python platform. The system assigns each source a unique code name so a relationship can be established without news organizations ever knowing the source's identity.

Poulsen managed the program for the first six months since going public six months ago. On Tuesday, the Freedom of the Press Foundation announced it will be taking over the project, renaming it SecureDrop and providing on-site installation for news organizations along with ongoing technical support.

Time for me to donate to the Freedom of The Press Foundation again.
https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/


https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2013/10/freedom-press-foundation-launches-securedrop
Freedom of the Press Foundation Launches SecureDrop, an Open-Source Submission Platform for Whistleblowers

October 15, 2013 San Francisco, CA: Freedom of the Press Foundation has taken charge of the DeadDrop project, an open-source whistleblower submission system originally coded by the late transparency advocate Aaron Swartz. In the coming months, the Foundation will also provide on-site installation and technical support to news organizations that wish to run the system, which has been renamed “SecureDrop.”

By installing SecureDrop, news organizations around the world can securely accept documents from whistleblowers, while better protecting their sources’ anonymity. Although it is important to note that no security system can ever be 100 percent impenetrable, Freedom of the Press Foundation believes that this system is the strongest ever made available to media outlets. Several major news agencies have already signed up for installations, and they will be announced in the coming weeks.

“We’ve reached a time in America when the only way the press can assure the anonymity and safety of their sources is not to know who they are,” said JP Barlow, co-founder and board member of Freedom of the Press Foundation. “SecureDrop is where real news can be slipped quietly under the door.”

Originally created by Swartz in partnership with investigative reporter Kevin Poulsen, SecureDrop is a Python application that accepts messages and documents from the web and encrypts them for secure storage. Each source who uses the platform is assigned a unique codename that lets the source establish a relationship with the news organization without having to reveal her real identity or resort to e-mail.

In addition to installation support, Freedom of the Press Foundation will provide media organizations with instruction on security best practices and long-term technical support. Small media organizations with significant financial need may also apply to Freedom of the Press Foundation for help obtaining hardware. The New Yorker, the first news organization to use the SecureDrop code, through its StrongBox project, will continue to operate its system.

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. thanks for posting this

[Luminous Animal]

2. You are welcome!