In today’s world of advanced surveillance, warrantless wiretapping, email monitoring, deep packet inspection and other techniques destroy the integrity of communication between individuals. As a result, it becomes essential for those who are transmitting sensitive information and data to take extraordinary precautions to maintain their safety. The extent to which these dangers can impact anyone faced with being a dissident in a country run by a hostile regime is captured in this WSJ article that exposed how international tech firms aided Gadhafi’s regime in electronically spying on and monitoring Libyan citizens for years.
In response to these very real threats, 100Reporters has created Whistleblower Alley – a secure, digital exchange and communications point for anyone, anywhere to contact us and/or transmit information. If you would like to send a message as well as file attachments – one per message – to 100Reporters in a secure manner (OpenPGP/2048-bit RSA encryption), you can easily do so by visiting https://privacybox.de/ohr.msg and following the directions provided.
If you are familiar with TOR, you can send a message using our TOR hidden service at http://c4wcxidkfhvmzhw6.onion/ohr.msg. Similarly, if you have access to i2p (aka the invisible internet project), you can send a message utilizing its protections by accessing our message service at http://privacybox.i2p/ohr.msg.
All messages sent through Whistleblower Alley are automatically encrypted prior to transmission during a secure browsing session and provide end-to-end security appropriate for the submission of sensitive information. Please note that if the computer used to send messages using any of these approaches itself is compromised, these security measures will NOT protect you.
As these messages are one-way only, you must provide contact information within the message if you would like a response to your message. If you would like a response via email, please provide your PGP/GPG public key (if it is not already present on public key servers) in additional to your email address so that we may do what we can to ensure your safety from our end.
If you do not know how to use PGP encryption, there are a number of free resources available to learn about how it works, how to use it, and to download the necessary software. One good introductory guide is available here and there are free software packages for both Windows and Mac that make it easy to set up quickly. These are by no means the only options for using PGP encryption, but they are amongst the leading current and regularly updated software packages available today.
Alternatively, you can setup an account for free at privacybox.de that can be used to securely exchange messages with 100Reporters. This could be considered be the ideal approach/best practice for individuals who have significant concerns about their safety and security, as messages are exchanged strictly within the service (instead of being transmitted across unknown external services/networks like email) and can be completely accessed using TOR hidden services or i2p.
For more information about TOR, please visit https://www.torproject.org/ and for information about i2p visit http://www.i2p2.de/how_intro.
100 Reporters’ PGP key for tips@100r.org is available here or via public key servers (search for “tips@100r.org”).
