Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Leak to the Press

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 104 posts

Re: How to Leak to the Press

#81

Post by fatbat »

300bps wrote: post #17
confluence wrote: post #10

Feels a bit overkill and way too identifying - security cameras + internet records + GPS locations will all help track you down, even if they are intermittent. Buy a stack of envelopes from a supermarket. Buy a stack of stamps. Buy a USB. Acquire all with cash. Transfer all files to the USB via live CD - make sure all meta-data is stripped and files are redacted to avoid fingering you. Handle the envelopes/stamps/USB…

>Print the addresses (be careful here - printers sometimes put identifying marks - get the most common one) Printer steganography is usually limited to color laser printers and high-end inkjets. Buying a common one unfortunately won't help you. Included in the codes that have been cracked is the serial number of the printer as well as a date and time stamp of the printout. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer…

Why not just use Kinko's?

Re: How to Leak to the Press

#82

Post by kansface »

mtgx wrote: post #43

What about "simply" using DeadDrop? http://deaddrop.github.io http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2013/05/intr... Or Retroshare: http://retroshare.sourceforge.net https://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/cryptography... https://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/privacy-on-t...

It seems to be often said that on the order of 1/3 of the Tor Exit/Entry nodes are run by the NSA.

Re: How to Leak to the Press

#84

Post by beat »

"I don't need to be fast. I just need to be faster than you!"

Your trail-covering only needs to be better than the investigation capability of those who are investigating your leak.

Re: How to Leak to the Press

#85

Post by btilly »

eli wrote: post #72
sitkack wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too much work. Watch homeland and drink amazing wine on your 100K+ salary. Tearfully wish the country wasn't descending into the cauldron ...

I think that's both unfair and inaccurate. You don't want someone to publish a story based a single anonymous source and unverified documents. That's how bogus stories about Benghazi emails or George W Bush's military record get made.

I am positive that you have the facts about George W. Bush's military record wrong.

The real story there is that all of the pertinent facts, with evidence, appeared in the BBC. Greg Palast was responsible for a lot of it. When CBS wanted to report on the story, they were given all of that, then went and did their own digging.

In the process of digging they were given a perfect memo that they ran with without authenticating properly. The memo turned out to be too good to be true, and was a forgery. The result is that everyone was left believing that the whole thing was based on a forgery.

But it wasn't. All of the key facts were uncovered earlier by the BBC and the planted forgery was merely a clever way to discredit the story. After Dan Rather painfully took a public fall over it, the issue became radioactive for all US media organizations.

See http://www.gregpalast.com/dan-crashes-bush-flies-high/ for Greg Palast's view on what happened to Dan Rather.

Re: How to Leak to the Press

#86

Post by sliverstorm »

Ilmesnkie_Jones wrote: post #39
300bps wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Print the addresses (be careful here - printers sometimes put identifying marks - get the most common one) Printer steganography is usually limited to color laser printers and high-end inkjets. Buying a common one unfortunately won't help you. Included in the codes that have been cracked is the serial number of the printer as well as a date and time stamp of the printout. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer…

Couldn't you just buy a cheap printer with cash, use it, and then dump it as well, perhaps leave it in a charity bin somewhere. Printers are pretty cheap these days, and it seems that in order for any of the markings to be useful they would have to find the printer in question in your possession/prove it was your printer.

The more purchases they can tie to the event, the more information they have and the more chances to track you down. You can slip up at any point- for example, say you buy the printer at Best Buy, and they figure out based on the S/N which Best Buy and what day the sale was made. You can't turn off security cameras in Best Buy.

The fewer transactions, the better.

Re: How to Leak to the Press

#87

Post by batbomb »

confluence wrote: post #19
300bps wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Print the addresses (be careful here - printers sometimes put identifying marks - get the most common one) Printer steganography is usually limited to color laser printers and high-end inkjets. Buying a common one unfortunately won't help you. Included in the codes that have been cracked is the serial number of the printer as well as a date and time stamp of the printout. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer…

Cut the letters out of a common magazine or newspaper then.

Or typewriter.

Re: How to Leak to the Press

#88

Post by sliverstorm »

eli wrote: post #13
confluence wrote: post #10

Feels a bit overkill and way too identifying - security cameras + internet records + GPS locations will all help track you down, even if they are intermittent. Buy a stack of envelopes from a supermarket. Buy a stack of stamps. Buy a USB. Acquire all with cash. Transfer all files to the USB via live CD - make sure all meta-data is stripped and files are redacted to avoid fingering you. Handle the envelopes/stamps/USB…

Being completely anonymous with no method for followup questions makes it difficult for the journalist to publish your leak. I suggest you be very patient if you go this route as any reputable journalist will have to independently find another source or verify the documents.

You can provide avenues for followups without compromising anonymity. This is one of the things dead drops are for.

Re: How to Leak to the Press

#89

Post by socillion »

kansface wrote: post #82
mtgx wrote: post #43

What about "simply" using DeadDrop? http://deaddrop.github.io http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2013/05/intr... Or Retroshare: http://retroshare.sourceforge.net https://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/cryptography... https://retroshareteam.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/privacy-on-t...

It seems to be often said that on the order of 1/3 of the Tor Exit/Entry nodes are run by the NSA.

Interesting, do you have a source for this?

Re: How to Leak to the Press

#90

Post by eli »

btilly wrote: post #85
eli wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's both unfair and inaccurate. You don't want someone to publish a story based a single anonymous source and unverified documents. That's how bogus stories about Benghazi emails or George W Bush's military record get made.

I am positive that you have the facts about George W. Bush's military record wrong. The real story there is that all of the pertinent facts, with evidence, appeared in the BBC. Greg Palast was responsible for a lot of it. When CBS wanted to report on the story, they were given all of that, then went and did their own digging. In the process of digging they were given a perfect memo that they ran with without authenti…

I don't care about George W Bush's military record and I don't think it changes my point.
Post reply on HN