NPC cybersecurity class on April 29: Protect yourself and your sources

National Press Club members are invited to receive hands-on training and best practices tips for using cyber security tools in their reporting at a half-day bootcamp on Saturday, April 29, in the Bloomberg Room.

The class will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. and is organized by the National Press Club Journalism Institute’s Freedom of the Press Committee. Registration is required; tickets are $30 for members and $45 for nonmembers. Lunch will be provided. To purchase tickets, click here.

This training is designed for working journalists who want to learn how to protect their digital information in an age where governments, criminal entities and other parties are becoming more sophisticated in their efforts to eavesdrop on conversations between journalists and their sources. The instructors will be Aaron Rinehart and David Reese from Testbed Inc., and Ferdous Al-Faruque, NPC Treasurer.

Attendees should bring their laptops and are asked to download some encryption programs before the class.

In late 2012, a source contacted journalist Glenn Greenwald under a pseudonym claiming he had “sensitive documents” to share but needed to communicate with him confidentially. That source was Edward Snowden. More than ever, learning the basics of the cyber security tools Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Edward Snowden used to uncover the NSA’s broad information collection operation is a must for any reporter working with anonymous government sources, classified documents or having aspirations of doing so.

We live in a highly dynamic environment where journalists need to protect their sources and themselves using encrypted emails, phone calls and text messages. Failing to take advantage of such tools could mean the difference between missing out on a pivotal government accountability story or worse, putting sources in danger.