DISPATCH: SECURE MOBILE JOURNALISM

Transcription

1 DISPATCH: SECURE MOBILE JOURNALISM Kanak Biscuitwala*, Willem Bult*, Mathias Lécuyer**, T. J. Purtell*, Madeline Ross**, Augustin Chaintreau**, Chris Haseman***, Monica Lam*, Susan McGregor** Stanford University*, Columbia University**, Tumblr, Inc.***

2 JOURNALISM?

3 CITIZENS + JOURNALISTS A long-lasting connection

4 CITIZENS + JOURNALISTS A relationship that is changing the world today Recent links between citizen reporting and journalists have had a profound impact

5 AWESOME, RIGHT?

6 PERVASIVE RISKS Citizen and professional journalists are threatened People jailed because of Facebook messages exchanged during the Arab Spring, and many citizen and professional reporters alike are unaware of the risks of using social media until it s too late Source protection is broken By law, journalists don t have to reveal their sources (in the US) What if the source contacts them by or Twitter and the government has the right to see the messages without any warrant?

7 PERVASIVE RISKS "When your computer can be confiscated and your s be viewed, there are times when meeting in person, taking notes on a notepad and hiding the notepad is the most secure way to conduct journalism" - Rebecca MacKinnon former CNN journalist, co-founder Global Voices Online

8 NEED FOR PROTECTION Journalists Extend reach of what can be reported Validate trustworthiness of source Maintain integrity and security of sources Citizen Reporters Avoid negative repercussions of reports Communicate regardless of the censorship situation Establish reputation

9 HOW?

10 THE TEAM Journalism Susan McGregor (Columbia) background with WSJ Madeline Ross (Columbia) specializes in digital communication Computer Science MobiSocial team at Stanford secure group communication Networking lab at Columbia opportunistic networks Publishing Chris Haseman (Tumblr) commitment to publish

11 PROJECT CONTRIBUTIONS Raising awareness of security among journalists Dispatch: Production-quality secure communication/publication system for journalists Experimental disconnection tolerance Real-life field tests with journalists on Dispatch to inform difficulties in the use and adoption

12 SECURE COMMUNICATION Trusted Pseudonym

13 PUBLISHING

14 PUBLISHING

15 PUBLISHING Looks like a user Instant or after approval

16 PUBLISHING Looks like a user Instant or after approval

17 IDENTITY-BASED ROUTING Messages are encrypted and signed using Identity-Based Cryptography (IBC) a Message Hash Sequence Number Message Key The system routes by hashed identities rather than by IP addresses, allowing users to send and receive messages from anywhere Version Sender Id Hash Sender Device Recipient Id Hash App Id AES IV Flags Encrypted Conv Key Rcpt Count Sender Signature AES(..., Conv Key) Recipient 0... Recipient n The message contains all necessary recipient information, allowing for adhoc message routing of signed and encrypted messages b Header AES(Payload, Message Key) a D. Boneh and M. Franklin. Identity-Based Encryption from the Weil Pairing. In CRYPTO 2001, b T. J. Purtell, I. Vo, and M. S. Lam. A Mobile Social Network on ESP: an Egocentric Social Platform

18 SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE = signed and encrypted by identities Identity-Based Routing Identity Provider SSL Publisher SSL SSL SSL Key Issuer Publishing Server

19 SNEAKERNET

20 SNEAKERNET

21 SNEAKERNET

22 SNEAKERNET

23 SNEAKERNET

24 SNEAKERNET

25 SNEAKERNET

26 APPROACHES Reputation building Forgery protection Interception protection Expand reach

27 APPROACHES Reputation building Forgery protection Interception protection Expand reach Messages cryptographically signed by pseudonyms Identity-based encryption Sneakernet built on identity-based routing

28 WORKING WITH JOURNALISTS

29 DISPATCH ON ELECTION DAY We want journalists to use Dispatch regardless of danger level Thus, we recruited some journalist contacts to report the elections in NYC The day before, we held a brief tutorial

30 DISPATCH ON ELECTION DAY 96 posts 21 text posts 75 image posts 22% 10 unique contributors 3 users with 5 or more posts each 1 MVP user Usage throughout the day 78% Text Images

31 DEMO

32 COMMUNITY BUILDING dispatchapp.wpengine.com

33 SUMMARY We ve assembled a diverse team to tackle problems We re continuing to map clever technical approaches to challenges journalists face today An iterative process is critical when working with journalists We re on ios and Android app marketplaces!