[liberationtech] Advice for Somali NGOs?

[Chris Palmer]

On Oct 20, 2010, at 2:19 AM, Steven Clift wrote:

> So if safe is clearly unacceptable and "safer" implies something impossible, then taking the "you have a video file you want to share" but you want to reduce your risk when sharing where are some good "101" introductory resources?

Jim is giving you the standard, good, security expert's response to a call for solutions: What is your threat model?

Nobody wants their urgent question to be answered with another, really hard, question. But Jim is right to ask it.

You need to investigate what threats and threat actors the videographers face. Do the police know how to tie videos found online to the phone they came from? Do they know how to shut down the cell network in an area when a tragic event is occurring? Can they track phone locations? Do the phone users know this? Does the phone company keep a copy of every or some bits they transmit? And so on. You need specifics.

I'm not as dubious of the value of exposing bad behavior as Jim seems to be, but I strongly share his feeling that you need to figure out what your needs really are. You might find that the true needs are different than what you expected; maybe the true problem is one of publicity moreso than of security.

And in the end, there is no risk-free or even low-risk dissidence. You're going to hit hard technical and psychological walls long before you get to the perfect place.


-- 
Chris Palmer
Technology Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation