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This research focuses on understanding the digital security and privacy needs of journalists and their sources to evaluate and design communication technologies that better support the fundamental operations of a globally free and unfettered press. Journalists -- along with their organizations and sources -- are known to be high-risk targets for cyberattack. This community can serve as a privacy and security bellwether, motivated to use new technologies, but requiring flexibility and ease-of-use. Many existing secure tools are too cumbersome for journalists to use on a regular basis. Moreover, these tools may lack important security and privacy-protecting features that are needed not only by the large and diverse community that is part of journalistic activity, but by other individuals and groups that may have a harder time recognizing and articulating their needs. By learning about the needs and constraints of the journalism community, this project will identify both technical and training interventions that can improve the daily security and privacy of journalists, the many communities with which they interact.
The researchers will perform in-depth interviews and usability tests with journalists and their sources. The insights gained will illuminate both the conceptual and technical issues they encounter with respect to cybersecurity. Using the specific risk- and resource-models relevant to these populations, the researchers will propose, prototype, and begin evaluating novel technical solutions to issues like communications metadata, as well as data management, syncing, search and permission controls, and the possibilities of trusted distributed key servers and "disappearing data." The results of this work will lay the groundwork for future technical advances, not only for journalists but also for use by researchers and organizations interested in implementing and testing these tools and processes for other communities.
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TWC: Medium: Collaborative: Studying Journalists to Identify Requirements for Usable, Secure, and Trustworthy Communication