Abstract

Information security tools have gained prominence and importance in the journalism field and are now being adopted more frequently by newsrooms and investigative journalists. SecureDrop, an open-source software for operating whistleblowing platforms, is now a common component of the toolboxes of journalists willing to work with stronger levels of security, especially in regard to source protection. By means of a content analysis of publicly available documents and semi-structured interviews with journalists using the software, this article looks at news organizations’ uses of SecureDrop, journalists’ perceptions of the software's strengths and limitations, and the accountability practices adopted by news organizations in regard to their use of SecureDrop. Overall, this article contributes to the understanding of how SecureDrop and information security in general are entering the journalistic field and becoming accepted journalistic practices.

摘要

信息安全工具在新闻领域已变得日益重要和重要，现在新闻室和调查新闻工作者越来越多地采用信息安全工具。SecureDrop是一种用于运行举报平台的开源软件，现在已成为愿意使用更高安全级别（尤其是在源保护方面）的记者工具箱的通用组件。通过对公开可用文档的内容分析以及使用该软件对记者的半结构化采访，本文研究了新闻机构对SecureDrop的使用，记者对软件优势和局限性的看法以及新闻机构采用的问责制做法关于他们对SecureDrop的使用。全面的，