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Comment by andyjohnson0 | Hacker News Reader

Context:

"The Florida department of law enforcement confirmed they had entered Jones’s house on a search warrant. But in a statement the department said the action was related to a recent computer hack of the health department website, in which emergency response coordinators were sent an unauthorised message."

...

"[Jones] told CNN she had come to the conclusion that the raid had been motivated by a desire to root out her source within the state bureaucracy, which is why police took away her phone. “On my phone is every communication I have ever had with someone who works with the state who has come to me in confidence and told me things that could get them fired,” she said."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/07/florida-poli...

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> On my phone is every communication I have ever had with someone who works with the state

Why? This information should be stored, encrypted, and be almost impossible to decrypt. You need a dead mans switch (which is tried and tested) to destroy any and all data. In fact, you could have a system where if you don't visit a URL within a few hours, it destroys a part of the method to access the decryption mechanism (or something similar to this, which works in "real time" and acts a nuke. If you're in jail for 24+ hours you have the safety to know your system will work and destroy password.txt/keyfile on a server somewhere and make it harder to access your records).

Storing this data in plain text, on a partition that can be decrypted within seconds is negligent and both parties are at fault. You need to ensure both systems meet strict requirements before you start communicating in any medium (digital, face to face etc)

Snowden knew what was going to happen to him, so he had the good sense to somewhat plan ahead. These people are not your friends, and you should assume as much.

You make the wrong person angry and you will end up in a ditch somewhere. Make preparations, retain a lawyer and for gods sake practice good sec ops; if you have privileged information it's vital you make it as hard as possible for both you and the state to access it.

I don't know much about the details of how things like this go down but it also seems like maybe admitting that wasn't such a great idea for that poor person...Can that admission alone be enough for a judge to compel she unlock the phone for law enforcement?

She's a data scientist, not a security expert. Holding her to this standard is unfair and very much blaming the victim.

Sounds like a business opportunity for Security experts to consult for journalists.

This is solid advice.

She shouldn't have to do that. Regardless, it would have been a good thing if she did.

She's quoted in the article as saying "I’m not that tech savvy". The degree of operations security you're describing presumably needs extensive training and familiarity. She's a scientist not a spy.

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