What a newsroom police raid teaches us about encrypting our devices
What a newsroom police raid teaches us about encrypting our devices
Police raid on Marion County Record underscores digital security threats to media orgs.
Summary
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The Marion County Record newsroom in Kansas was raided by police, who seized two cellphones, four computers, a backup hard drive, and reporting materials.
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A computer seized was most likely unencrypted. Law enforcement officials hope that devices seized during a raid are unencrypted, as this makes them easier to examine.
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Modern iPhones and Android phones are encrypted by default, but older devices may not be.
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Desktop computers typically do not have encryption enabled by default, so it is important to turn this on manually.
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Use strong random passwords and keep them in a password manager.
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During the raid, police seized a single backup hard drive. It is important to have multiple backups of your data in case one is lost or stolen.
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You can encrypt USB storage devices using BitLocker To Go on Windows, or Disk Utility on macOS.
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All major desktop operating systems support Veracrypt, which can be used to encrypt entire drives.
Main Take-aways
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Encrypt your devices, drives, and USBs.
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Use strong random passwords and password manager.
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Have multiple backups.
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So encryption really matters, totally agree. Protection at all times.
But I’m also curious about this story. Why are the police raiding a newspaper and seizing computers? That is sketchy as hell.
Short version:
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Police chief was accused of sexual impropriety, and the newspaper was investigating.
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A prominent local restaurant owner got caught in a DUI and the newspaper got a tip and investigated. On investigation, they decided the story was not newsworthy.
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Police raided the newspaper claiming that the DUI tip was the result of illegal computer hacking, and that they had to confiscate the computers to analyze for evidence of hacking.
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The judge who signed the search warrant also had a history of DUI.
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Critics believe that the police used this hacking claim as a thinly veiled excuse to cripple the newspaper and check to see what they really had on the chief.
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Critics have also suggested that the police themselves may have leaked the information to set up the flimsy excuse for the search.
Thanks for the summary.
That is kind of what I suspected which is:
- There was some conflict between the newspaper and local government
- Government found some flimsy excuse to attack the newspaper
Overall that’s bad news. It implies the government’s gloves are coming off.
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The paper was investigating the police chief.