Take the advice offered by journalists on how to contact them privately and avoid getting caught. I.e. secure and protect evidence without raising suspicion. Contact a reputable journalist via some secure means of communication.
Hypothetically, if you are a witness or whistleblower who's adversary was a very big corporation (such as boeing), what measures could you take to prevent yourself from being "suicided"?
Submitted 21 hours ago by IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com to [deleted]
Comments
hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 21 hours ago
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 20 hours ago
This children is why the need for private communication isn’t something you can laugh away by claiming you have nothing to hide
disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Absolutely. There are many reasons, but attacks on journalists/whistleblowers and the malicious potential of collated data in a capitalist oligarchy are the first two that come to mind.
tburkhol@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Encrypt email with anyone who publishes a key. If “bad” emails are the only ones you encrypt, then that metadata can be used to raise suspicion of you and to trace your contacts.
jagged_circle@feddit.nl 6 hours ago
Man, lots of crazy, unrealistic advice here.
The answer is pretty simple, live in a community house with like 8 other people.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 hours ago
Edward Snowden is a prime example of how to handle it.
Only communicated via encrypted channels.
When revealing himself and his leak, he had already left his home country. He was trying to make it to South America when the US canceled his passport.
I’m sure he has still had to worry about his personal safety after getting stuck in a country he wasn’t planning on getting stuck in.
But the reality is you have to meticulously plan and basically abandon your entire life and move somewhere they cannot touch you. When it comes to US companies, you generally will have to do like Snowden and avoid US-allied nations.
See also: Steven Donziger and Chevron
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Donziger
Donziger was placed under house arrest in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of criminal contempt of court, which arose during his appeal against Kaplan’s RICO decision, when he refused to turn over electronic devices he owned to Chevron’s forensics experts. In July 2021, US District Judge Loretta Preska found him guilty, and Donziger was sentenced to 6 months in jail in October 2021. While Donziger was under house arrest in 2020, twenty-nine Nobel laureates described the actions taken by Chevron against him as “judicial harassment.” Human rights campaigners called Chevron’s actions an example of a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP). In April 2021, six members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus demanded that the Department of Justice review Donziger’s case. In September 2021, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the pre-trial detention imposed on Donziger was illegal and called for his release. Having spent 45 days in prison and a combined total of 993 days under house arrest, Donziger was released on April 25, 2022.
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Yeah so many people talk about Snowden going to Russia and ignore the fact that he was only in Russia transferring to another plane when his passport was cancelled stranding him there. The choice was basically stay there, or go back to the US, and that wasn’t really an option.
Why the US would want to leave him in Russia as a potential asset for Russian intelligence to break instead of letting him get to a different country that isn’t such a direct threat though is a really good question.
Forester@yiffit.net 20 hours ago
Easy. They got to call him a Russian operative and brush it under the rug. Go ask the average person about snowden
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 hours ago
Those Boeing Whistleblowers should’ve left the country 😓
sepiroth154@feddit.nl 20 hours ago
Preferably, not via Boeing aircraft.
oce@jlai.lu 19 hours ago
Snowden was an IT expert, it certainly helps. His book is a great read.
Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 15 hours ago
While it won’t help you getting suicided, setting up a deadman’s switch on the cloud that will release your testimony is definitely worth doing.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 11 hours ago
Additionally, give a copy of all the documents to your lawyer to release in the case of your death. Multiple Deadman switches are better than one, especially one that’s controlled by a person and not just hoping your cloud service doesn’t go down after you’re dead.
Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 4 hours ago
Absolutely. I was gonna edit my comment to include that but you beat me to the punch.
aaaa@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
With whistleblower information, why hold it back in the first place? Wouldn’t it be better to release it immediately if they might kill you either way?
Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 1 hour ago
IIRC the problem there is that it potentially makes you liable to be sued by the company for disclosing negative/private information. But they can’t exactly hold you liable if you’re dead, so if you’re dead you may as well speak what you know from beyond the grave.
BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Despite all precautions, if you are one of the few persons whose circumstances could allow the leak, then they’ll narrow it down to you.
Overboard8171@startrek.website 8 hours ago
Don’t leak. Spread seldom rumours online about the company with plausible deniability. Find a crazy-er person and/or group. Continue spreading dots. Spread info to Youtubers. Others with a platform. Use a VM, a password manager inside the VM. After 12 months, delete all your credentials and the VM. The system can not protect you. Corps rule democracy. Don’t trust the system. Spread the info until it reaches critical mass or the faith in the system collapses. Your life is worth more than some righteous leak. See the Pentagon Papers life. He lived a very humble life afterwards.
NOTE: method untested and invented just now.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Live on cash from different ATMs; stay at a hotel/motel; rent a car and change it at different locations every week; go nowhere you don’t need to go; stay offline; Don’t tell anyone where you are; communicate only with your lawyer; record everything in an official manner as soon as possible.
And most of all don’t listen to the billy badasses in here. If a multi billion dollar corporation wants you dead and is willing to break the law they can afford a lot of very nasty people. You aren’t getting the tactical training to stand against them in that short amount of time. Your best defense is to be ghost except when you show up for court dates and depositions. That’s what the Secret Service Witness Protection Program does and it works if you have discipline.
GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 7 hours ago
how’d you find the guy?
Easy. We had a list of the fifteen or so guys that did that specific part of the job, we got their IP addresses, watched them for a while, and as it turns out, two of them regularly use a VPN and send all of their traffic to Canada.
How long do you think it would take to figure out whether or not which one of these boys are harmless software pirates, or their man?
People do all of the work in the world without knowing that your preparation will blow your cover.
Have you ever visited TailsOS’s website off of a VPN? Could the Feds find out? Do you think the other guys have the same level of deniability?
That trail is not washing off.
Etterra@discuss.online 17 hours ago
Amongst everything others have said, if you get sucked into an interview or press conference, directly and firmly state that, for the record, you are not suicidal and that if you should die, it was absolutely not suicide. You believe that you’ve become a target and fear for your safety and life.
It doesn’t matter if you believe yourself to be a target in the privacy of your head. Always say that you are early, often, loudly, and to anyone who will listen.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 hours ago
Didn’t work for McAfee
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Probably because he was absolutely bananas
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
I just end all my public speeches with “and Carthage must be destroyed.”
cheese_greater@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Dead Man’s Switch
trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
And you’ll need to publicly advertise that you are using one for it to be effective.
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 1 hour ago
Not necessarily. The only people who would need to know are the people who are already researching you to have you killed for a potential leak, and they would operate under the assumption of a DMS in place already.
souperk@reddthat.com 20 hours ago
Also, the payload needs to be worse than what you are already disclosing…
Shortstack@reddthat.com 16 hours ago
Was just looking at something like how to execute on that this morning as my morning coffee dive down an internet rabbit hole.
There’s this guy named Michael Bazzell who used to make a podcast about stuff like this, and he also wrote a book called Extreme Privacy that I thumbed through this morning. He talks about where to go to get a ghost address, how to buy and set up a cell phone to be virtually anonymous, how to buy a house anonymously or how to re-title your car to a trust or LLC, and pretty much everything in between. Even talks about what information to not divulge when you go to the ER and details what to consider you put on your kids birth certificate.
So if anyone is paranoid enough to know how to avoid getting suicided, I’m going to bet on this guy’s advice
Cl1nk@sh.itjust.works 15 hours ago
Do you know where to find the podcast? Its seems like they dissappeared from the internet 🤨
ifItWasUpToMe@lemmy.ca 14 hours ago
He’s THAT good
StaticFlow@feddit.uk 12 hours ago
His podcast ended and he’s worked to remove them where possible. While I don’t know if there are archives of it I can vouch for the quality of his books. They receive updates throughout the year and are step by step guides on how to lock down certain aspects of your life. Its worth purchasing.
BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 20 hours ago
Definitely a dead man switch, and several letters from me and my psychiatrist specifying that I’m not suicidal.
BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
“Circumstances change”
CaptSatelliteJack@lemy.lol 13 hours ago
I can’t believe no one has said to keep and train with a gun. The best way to live is to kill your killer. Secure channels and home security cameras won’t do shit if you don’t have a good way to physically defend yourself.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
This isn’t the movies. They aren’t sending one person you can get into a fight with. They’ll just shoot you and ransack your house to make it look like you died in a robbery gone wrong. Just don’t be there.
CaptSatelliteJack@lemy.lol 1 hour ago
So, what, just be homeless instead? I don’t understand how having a tool to physically defend your corporeal form could possibly be a bad thing, and this counterpoint makes no sense.
WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
It’s pretty sad that not only are we at a point where this is a very legitimate question, but that the answer is something that should be taught in schools.
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 hours ago
School aint teaching this shit. That would imply that you should be a whistleblower or be a witness to wrongdoings. No way governments would let this be taught.
This is what parents should be teaching at home.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
If you have a union…
victorz@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
*whose adversary
kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
Only use encrypted communication, use a phone running GraphineOS, and your computer should be running a secure OS like QubesOS (in addition to Tor and/or MullvadVPN). Basically you need maximum security and maximum privacy, a Thinkpad running Libreboot is the best laptop and a Pixel will be the best phone.
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
Good suggestions, however, I don’t think even pigeon carriers will stop yourself from mysteriously dying of suicide with 2 shots in the back of your head.
kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
Of course, at the same time its not harmful to do as much as you can. However, as the saying goes “the game was rigged from the start”
muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 17 hours ago
Tails on a usb on a personal device only. Never do anything in person. Redact all personal information for all people yourself included. Use a pdf to image embedded pdf conversion tool to hide all possible pdf metadata. Remove all image metadata. Never tell anyone any traceable information this includes names, locations, times, contacts, you voice, anything that can in any way be identified as unique to u.
Do not raise suspicion quit within a short period of disclosure of information, speak out about issurs, etc. Use simplex chat or pgp encrypted email with a new randomly generated email address not linked to personal info (phone number, existing email etc). Do this all via tor on ur tails install.
Data exfiltration is difficult and can be linked/traced depending on threat model (boing will have extreme capacity and can be considered as dangerouse as a government actor). If u can take the device home and their is no device opened detection in BIOS then extract drive plug into personal device thats booted with tails and copy files from drive to tails (avoids any logging of files being copied or what fikes).
If files are on a secure server then exfil will be traceable. U can avoid this by taking pictures of screen with an oldschoop dslr (be carfull of information leakage (the monitor reflections etc).
If u are to testify and therefore need to disclose your real identity then u could theoreticly livestream ur entire life untill the point of testifying at which point u state clearly for the record u are not suicidal that u fear for you life and hope to hell thwy dont suicide u out of spite. Also if ur in the states carry a firearm and learn how to use it effectively.
Also deadmans switch which publicly dumps info. Files, audio/video from ur phone streamed to a remote server (in an internal durastinction they cant get to easily or quickly)
Idk tho just some thoughts
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Psych eval, video uploads, video camera on me at all times with an atty that has access to the recordings.
meco03211@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
There are apps that will upload video to the web live while recording in the background. Don’t have any interactions with random strangers that you aren’t recording. Have security cams at your house recording 24/7 saving remotely to a secure server.
sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
None. If you’ve ever worked at Boeing, you know this is not something they are capable of doing (honestly it is a shock they are in business at all).
Waldowal@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
All it takes is money to hire someone who is capable.
sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Their margins are negative (like 45%negative) in 2 of 3 business units. Business skills like those suggest the leadership isn’t even smart enough to think of suiciding anyone.
babybus@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
You don’t become a whistleblower.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
there exists a dark package infrastructure. usually used for stealing money from grannies but does drug drops and others. get in contact with them on a burner. send them the package with fee and they will deliver it anywhere you need it.
make sure you find a scapegoat within your company that knows what’s going on but doesn’t know you know. make them the whistleblower.
sit back and enjoy the shitshow as the trust breaks down and the company goes under.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 20 hours ago
who’s
Who is?
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 hours ago
That’s probably the CIA poison affecting my ability to typ…
NutWrench@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Collect all your evidence into one large archive, upload it somewhere and make it known that if you die of anything other than natural causes, that information will become available to EVERYONE.
Read up on how “dead man’s switches” work. If you don’t send a signal online, log into a particular account on a regular basis, that sends the release signal.
aaaa@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
But why bother holding back in the first place. If this is whistleblower information like Boeing safety issues, there’s no point in setting up a dead man’s switch. You want to release it all immediately in the first place, because keeping it to yourself undermines the point of blowing the whistle
asmoranomar@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Might be the whistleblowing stuff. Might not. Guess you’ll have to kill me to find out.
InputZero@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Then the incentive becomes to stop a whistleblower faster if they had a dead-man cache than if they released it all at once. There’s no guarantee that the whistleblower is being honest or is capable enough to undertake something like that but there’s always a risk that the whistleblower may disclose that information anyway. Better to stop the whistleblower by arresting them first and deal with the potential fallout than negotiate. Now the whistleblower’s reputation is ruined, if they’re behind bars they’re effectively silenced, and they’re as good as dead to society without all that messy work trying to fake a suicide.