SecureDrop
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Type: Research
Organization: Tow Center for Digital Journalism
Dates: 2015-16
Topics: Source protection, Digital security, Journalism, Interviews

Summary
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The first published study of how SecureDrop entered newsroom routines and changed the practical conditions of protecting anonymous sources.

Project Notes
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The Guide to SecureDrop examined both the software and the newsroom practices that made it useful. I interviewed twelve journalists and three technical administrators across ten news organizations, along with five people who built, trained, or supported the system. Nine of the ten news organizations said SecureDrop had proved useful, but most relied on a small number of dedicated operators to check it and move material into ordinary reporting workflows.

That narrow operating model was not simply a sign of failure. SecureDrop asks a newsroom to create a protected route around the identifying traces left by email, phones, and ordinary web services. Its difficulty, the care required to check it, and the public signal sent by offering it all formed part of the protection. A promise to shield a source matters more when the technical system reduces how much the reporter can be compelled to reveal.

The report was the first published study of SecureDrop's adoption in newsrooms. I later trained reporters in operational security and brought the research into day-to-day editorial practice.

Original and Related Work
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Guide to SecureDrop
  Open the complete Tow Center report on how newsrooms adopted and operated SecureDrop.
  https://charlesberret.net/shared/2016-berret-tow-securedrop.pdf
Columbia Journalism Review
  Read the report's web edition and overview at Columbia Journalism Review.
  https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/guide_to_securedrop.php
Academic Commons record
  Open Columbia's repository record for publication metadata, citation, and downloadable files.
  https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D84178B2
SecureDrop research
  Browse the SecureDrop project's research library, including this study and later related work.
  https://securedrop.org/research/

Canonical page: https://charlesberret.net/projects/#securedrop
Plaintext: https://charlesberret.net/projects/securedrop.txt