Security Without Borders: Free security help for dissidents
Security researcher Claudio Guarnieri has experience working with journalists and human rights organizations that have exercised freedom of speech, reported on some form of corruption and wound up becoming targets because of it. Their computers may be compromised with spying malware such as those in the hands of the Hacking Team, FinFisher or NSA to name but a few. Their electronic communications also may be intercepted, and their messaging programs may be blocked.
All of that may be because the journalists and human rights organizations in our modern connected society were standing up for what is right, being the voice of dissent, getting out the news about injustice.
At 33rd Chaos Communication Congress, or 33C3, Guarnieri presented “Hacking the World,” which was actually not a technical talk; it was more about “security activism.”
For all the wonderful things that the internet has given us, the internet also has been turned into a tool for repression. Guarnieri discussed “technological imbalance”—nation states have deep pockets and use the imbalance to their own advantage. Technology has been used “to curb dissent, to censor information, to identify and monitor people.” He added, “Billions of dollars have been poured into surveillance—both passive and active.”
Sadly, electronic surveillance and censorship have become so commonplace that nowadays people can get arrested for a tweet. There are places were dissidents are hunted down, using crypto is illegal, where sites are blocked and even internet access can be cut off. “Those who face imprisonment and violence in the pursuit of justice and democracy cannot succeed if they don’t communicate securely as well as remain safe online.”
“Security can no longer be a privilege,” Guarnieri said. Instead, it needs to be “a right which is exercised and protected.” Security “is a precondition for privacy, which is the key enabler for freedom of expression.”
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3154188/security/security-without-borders-free-security-help-for-dissidents.html
Of course the security needs for dissidents are very similar to the security needs of terrorists. And the tools to catch terrorists are very similar to the tools to catch dissidents.
It's a dilemma.