What a newsroom police raid teaches us about encrypting our devices
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Summary
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The Marion County Record newsroom in Kansas was raided by police, who seized two cellphones, four computers, a backup hard drive, and reporting materials.
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A computer seized was most likely unencrypted. Law enforcement officials hope that devices seized during a raid are unencrypted, as this makes them easier to examine.
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Modern iPhones and Android phones are encrypted by default, but older devices may not be.
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Desktop computers typically do not have encryption enabled by default, so it is important to turn this on manually.
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Use strong random passwords and keep them in a password manager.
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During the raid, police seized a single backup hard drive. It is important to have multiple backups of your data in case one is lost or stolen.
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You can encrypt USB storage devices using BitLocker To Go on Windows, or Disk Utility on macOS.
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All major desktop operating systems support Veracrypt, which can be used to encrypt entire drives.
Main Take-aways
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Encrypt your devices, drives, and USBs.
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Use strong random passwords and password manager.
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Have multiple backups.
No I won't give the password
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/security.png
Make the authentication a biological indicator of consensual, free, unhindered existence.
“Sorry officers I literally can’t unlock this computer while I’m in your custody. Unless you can find a way to make me want to be here, that is”
“Well then we’ll just torture you”
“Nope, as you can see pain I experience burns this fuse here. Once the fuse is consumed, data begins to progressively degrade”