DigiActive.org

Tactic: Haiti earthquake gets quick response online

Written by Talia Whyte on January 13, 2010 – 2:46 pm -

Description: Haiti was rocked Tuesday night by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. According to a report, Haiti’s First Lady Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour said that “most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed.”

While almost all phone lines have gone down on the impoverished island, Haitians have been able to communicate to friends and relatives around the world with the use of new media. Not only has there been a flurry of tweets and photos of the devastation posted online over night, but charitable individuals and organizations have responded quickly with their efforts to help victims.

Digital Tools Being Used: Twitter, Video, Photos, Text Message, etc

What Are They Doing: Victims of the earthquake immediately got on Twitter, uploaded photos and YouTube videos and text messaged to give eyewitness reports on the tragedy like this one:

RAMHaiti: It’s 8:44PM and we’re still getting aftershocks!!I can hear people gathered in the distance singing prayers…people in large numbers are singing prayers downtown

In the last few hours charitable organizations have been able to make initial assessments of victims’ needs and have asked for donations, mostly through the use of digital tools.

Red Cross: Help Haiti right now, text Haiti to 90999 to give just $10 to the Red Cross

UNICEF: Donate now for Haiti on their website

Rap artist and activist Wyclef Jean was among the first to organize online when he sent out these tweets:

@wyclef Help Haiti by donating to Yele on www.yele.org follow @YeleHaiti

@wyclef Another way you can help Haiti after their 7.0 earthquake: Donate $5 by texting YELE to 501501 and by visiting www.YELE.org

News organizations that cater to Haitian communities in the United States have also taken the initiative to give their readers updated information about the earthquake’s aftermath, such as the Boston Haitian Reporter, which has been live-blogging since Tuesday night.

What is the Impact: While a full assessment of the Haitian earthquake will be long term, this latest international incident shows the incredible value in digital activism for quick response and possibly saving lives.

Tags: earthquake, haiti
Posted in Americas, Blogs, Digital Images, Microblogging, Mobile Phones, Social Networks, Tactics, Video | No Comments »

Free Bashir Campaign Begins

Written by DigiActive Team on December 16, 2009 – 11:53 pm -

Moroccan blogger Bashir Hazzam was arrested on December 7th after taking part in a student protest and posting about it on his blog.  The Free Bashir site is up now at www.freebashir.org.  These types of  sites are getting more and more sophisticated.   This one has clear  background information on the case, banners for you blog, a widget, and presences on Twitter, Facebook, on Flickr.   It would be helpful if the site proposed one clear action that people could take to help Bashir.   It’s all about having a credible theory of change: how will the actions people take online affect the offline outcome of the case?

Tags: morocco
Posted in Action Alerts, Blogs, Mid-East & N. Africa | 1 Comment »

DA Interview: Women Tech Entrepreneurs

Written by Talia Whyte on November 10, 2009 – 11:59 am -

The first New Media Women Entrepreneurs Summit occurred yesterday with dozens of enterprising women – and a few men – thinking about the business side of the new cyber frontier.  Following the summit, DigiActive talked to future tech entrepreneur Juliana Bozan of Brazil about creating Internet start-ups with a focus on social justice.  Bozan came to the Summit to find inspiration.  

DigiActive: Why is it important for more women to get involved in technology and entrepreneurship?

Juliana Bozan:  I think it is really important for women to get online today because they are so many business opportunities.  Women, especially in the developing world, are blogging and tweeting about issues that affect us.  Just look at the Iranian protests last summer and the continuing human rights problems against women in the Middle East; many of the bloggers are women. Journalism outlets like CNN and BBC are using information on our blogs for free, and we see no profit.  But now is the time to step our game, and figure out a way to create business opportunities for our words, video and audio.     

DA:  Tell me about your blogging experience?

JB: I used to write for a now defunct group blog for women in Brazil a couple of years back about “Brave Women,” where we would talk about problems women in the favelas like domestic violence, prostitution and single motherhood.  It was great because everyone liked it and we have a lot of unique hits on the site, including from European journalism outlets.  However, some of these journalism outlets reposted some of our blog posts, which was fine at first, but eventually we got tired of them taking our stuff without giving credit to our blog, the bloggers or even asking our permission to repost or paying us for reposting.  We felt like we were being used, you know, like a new kind of colonialism.  Since Western outlets are cutting back on having journalists in the developing world, they now seek out bloggers in countries they want to get information about.  Unfortunately, it is very commonplace these days for Western journalism outlets take information from bloggers in the developing world and not give credit where credit is due.

DA: What are you hoping to take away from this Summit?

JB: I have met a couple of interesting people here who I would like to follow up within the next few days about getting help on writing a business plan.  I want to look into starting an online newsletter or blog about Brazilian women social justice activists, but this time I want to look at having a better strategy for monetizing my site, so my writers will get payment and credit for their work.  I would even consider having more formalized partnerships with journalism outlets.

DA: What advice do you have for other women tech entrepreneurs?

JB: Be strong, be confident and be smart about what you are doing.  Don’t let others take advantage of you or tell you that you can’t do your own website.  When you do that, you have failed before you’ve even gotten started.

Tags: new media women entrepreneurs
Posted in Americas, Blogs | 1 Comment »

DigiActive Memo: US Embargoes Harm Activists

Written by Kate Brodock on October 22, 2009 – 5:31 pm -

DigiActive’s Mary Joyce, Andreas Jungherr and Daniel Schultz recently created a policy memo on the harmful effects of American software embargoes on digital activists around the world. It was presented for a Congressional hearing before the US Helsinki Commission.

A brief overview:

In the digital age, where a “good” is a string of code that can be delivered anywhere in the world with the click of a mouse, even today’s smart sanctions are not smart enough.  By preventing access to blogging platforms, social networks, and other types of new media, current embargo policies harm the very activists who are furthering our common goals of democracy promotion, while leaving authoritarian governments free to spread propaganda through a range of state-controlled media outlets.

The full version is below.  Click to download the .pdf:

Not Smart Enough:
How America’s “Smart” Sanctions Harm the World’s Digital Activists

by Mary Joyce, Andreas Jungherr and Daniel Schultz[1]
The DigiActive Working Group on Sanction Reform for the Digital Age

A Wave of Attacks on the World’s Digital Activists

In the winter and spring of this year, a wave of attacks on digital activists began.  In Zimbabwe, the web site of one the nation’s strongest pro-democracy groups, Kubatana, was threatened with being shut down.  In Belarus, another pro-democracy web site, this one representing the Belarussian American Association, received the same threat.  In February bloggers in Iran received a similar notice that their blogs would be suspended, this in spite of research by the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society that the Iranian blogosphere is a vibrant arena for both supporters and opponents of the current regime.  In Sudan, aid workers are unable to download Google Earth and its “Crisis in Darfur” map, which would give them important information on sites of violence.  In April users in Syria were temporarily blocked from using the social network LinkedIn, though social networks have played an important role in organizing grassroots citizen movements in countries from Egypt and Morocco to Colombia.

… Perpetrated by United States’ Embargo Policies

Who was behind this wave of attacks?  Was it President Mugabe? President Lukashenko? President Assad?  No.  The perpetrator of these attacks on pro-democracy activists was none other than the United States government and American companies adhering to its embargo regimes.

The United States has several embargo regimes related both to particular products (such as encryption software) and to individuals.  These sanctions were designed to protect US interests while limiting the effect of these measures to our nation’s enemies.  Yet in the digital age, where a “good” is a string of code that can be delivered anywhere in the world with the click of a mouse, even today’s smart sanctions are not smart enough.  By preventing access to blogging platforms, social networks, and other types of new media, current embargo policies harm the very activists who are furthering our common goals of democracy promotion, while leaving authoritarian governments free to spread propaganda through a range of state-controlled media outlets.

… With American Firms Caught in an Untenable Position

These embargo policies leave American firms in a difficult position.  Overwhelmed by a mass of overlapping sanctions, many take the most conservative position and simply cut off all clients in targeted countries, even though sanctions target only a few individuals.  This was the policy of the Utah-based company Bluehost, which was responsible for cutting off users in Zimbabwe, Belarus, and Iran earlier this year.  Especially in light of potential fines, Bluehost decided to play it safe by cutting off all users in embargoed countries, rather than constantly cross-check their users against Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) lists.

Though activists may be frustrated with this kind of corporate decision-making, it is consistent with the firm’s role as a profit-making entity.  American companies may choose to promote ethical activity and protect activists in foreign nations, but this is hardly their purpose.  When protecting activists means potentially running afoul of the US government, it is not surprising that many firms choose to cut off activists to protect shareholder interests.

New Embargo Policies for the Digital Age

In light of these private-sector realities, responsibility for protecting foreign democracy activists falls to the US government.  DigiActive’s Working Group on Sanction Reform for the Digital Age recommends the following steps in order to bring about this reform:

1. Creation of a Single Body of Software Regulations: Members of the government bodies responsible for promulgating sanctions should conduct a thorough review of all regulations and legislation related to embargoes on software including, but not limited to, the Commerce Department’s Export Administration Regulations and the sanctions programs maintained by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.  This review would result in the creation of a single volume of software policies which, at a minimum, will make it easier for US firms to abide by current rules and, by clarifying their responsibilities, would allow them to follow the letter of the law rather than taking the unnecessarily conservative positions they are currently applying to avoid the risk of transgressing unclear embargo regulations.
2. Stakeholder Review of Software Regulations:  Once this single body of regulation is created, stakeholders should be invited to comment and suggest modifications to the existing rules.  This stakeholder group should include, but not be limited to, representatives of the agencies responsible for promulgating and enforcing the sanctions, representatives of American firms who must abide by the sanctions, and experts in digital activism and democracy promotion.
3. Promulgation of New Regulations:  Based on this stakeholder review, DigiActive suggests that a new set of sanctions be promulgated that recognize 1) that software embargoes function quite differently than embargoes on physical goods 2) that any software embargo is highly susceptible to failure because of the ease in circumventing online blocks to digital goods and 3) that access to new media tools is a great benefit to democracy activists, who lack other means of organization and message dissemination, while being of little use to authoritarian regimes, who have entire state apparatuses at their disposal.

We at the DigiActive Working Group on Sanction Reform for the Digital Age are optimistic about the positive outcome of this process and would like to offer our continuing assistance.  You may contact us through our web site at www.DigiActive.org .

[1] This policy memo was originally written for a Congressional briefing panel before the Commission
on Security and Cooperation in Europe (October 22, 2009)

To download the full version, please click

Tags: andreas Jungherr, Daniel Schultz, embargo policy, mary joyce, policy, policy memo, US Helsinki Commission
Posted in Asia, Blogs, Campaigns, Guides & Resources | 2 Comments »

Action Alert: Help Detained Vietnamese Bloggers

Written by Hamid Tehrani on September 15, 2009 – 4:49 am -

Background: The web has become a critical tool for over 20 million Vietnamese internet users to access and share information beyond the censorship of the state-run media.  Since September 2008, the authorities in Vietnam have unleashed a massive campaign against Vietnamese bloggers and cyber activists. In the last 12 months at least 15 bloggers have been arrested and harassed. According to Viet Tan, a Vietnamese pro-democracy group based outside the country, these bloggers  were simply posting their writings critical of the government’s handling of the land sovereignty disputes with China and bauxite mining. For example blogger Sphinx was detained for posting on his blog a picture of himself wearing a T-shirt saying “Paracel and Spratly islands belong to Vietnam. ”

How to Help: People can download the internet freedom poster and publish it on FaceBook, blogs and so on. People who live in America can send a pre-written letter to their Representative and urge him/her to support internet freedom in Vietnam.

Impact: The bloggers do not belong to any association or organization and it will be easy for them to be forgotten. Any international campaign can be helpful to create a virtual shield to protect them or at least keep their presence alive.

Tags: censorship, Vietnam
Posted in Action Alerts, Asia, Blogs, Campaigns | No Comments »

Interview: Tonyo Cruz on Digital Activism in the Philippines

Written by Mary Joyce on July 30, 2009 – 1:52 am -

I am in the Philippines this week with fellow DigiActivist Lynn Casper to participate in a training organized by the Computer Professionals’ Union. While here I decided to interview one of the country’s most prolific digital activists – Tonyo Cruz – and ask him about digital activism in the Philippines.

Tonyo Cruz (foreground) at a recent event in Manila on digital campaigning

Mary Joyce: You are a very prolific digital activist – president of the famous mobile activism organization TXTPower, prominent blogger at tonyocruz.com, and  founder of a Filipino bloggers’ organization. How did you first become  involved in digital activism?

Tonyo Cruz: I’d like to think that I started my activism in high school. I was among the students of Manila Science High School who published an underground paper called The MaSci Times in 1991. We used the old program Printshop to design this one page newsletter that poked fun at our school principal and voiced out our complaints, among others. We just had it photocopied and came out with about a dozen issues.

Bayan, the multisectoral group I worked for in 2000-2003, was among the first people’s organizations in the Philippines to go online. Their first website was hosted in Geocities. As Bayan media officer, I introduced email, email groups and text messaging as ways of quickly and surely reaching journalists. Bayan officials later used email,
email groups and text messaging as tools for managing the organization. These tools — mobiles and the web — later proved crucial in the mass actions that led to the People Power uprising of 2001 which ousted President Estrada.

Following Estrada’s ouster, a group called Plunder Watch pressed [now President] Arroyo to prosecute Estrada. The group held a big media event for the launch of its website which contained Estrada’s accountabilities and liabilities. I was also the media officer of Plunder Watch and oversaw the management of the said website.

That same year, my friends and I gathered in Quezon City to form TXTPower. The following years, I was also involved in trying to form Indymedia Pilipinas which gave way to Indymedia in Manila and in Quezon City.

MJ:  Social networking is very big in the Philippines and Friendster is the most popular. According to their Country Sales Manager, Narciso Reyes, there are about 14 million active Filipino users on the site, which is almost 70%
of the total online population of the Philippines. Has this large user base translated into Friendster being used for digital acitivsm in the Philippines? If not, why not

TC: We will see by late this year whether Friendster will get the attention of candidates and parties, or whether voters themselves would use Friendster for their choice of candidates or for election-related causes. I do hope they do so.

MJ: Although there aren’t figures yet available, there is a growing number of Filipinos migrating from Friendster to Facebook, particularly the tech-savvy urban middle class. You recently used Facebook to organize a blogger
meet-up in opposition to President Macapagal Arroyo. Why did you choose Facebook to organize this mobilization? Which is more activist-friendly, Friendster or Facebook?

TC: Friendster has provided limited use to political activists simply because Facebook has overtaken it as the preferred social networking site of the most articulate, most dynamic and most political segment of the lower, middle and upper classes. They may be fewer than Friendster but these Facebook users are more influential. Also, there
are more activists, journalists and politicians on Facebook than on Friendster. Read more »

Tags: Add new tag, facebook activism, friendster, philippines
Posted in Asia, Blogs, Mobile Phones, Orgs & People, Social Networks | 4 Comments »

Tactic: Youth fight for food justice online

Written by Talia Whyte on July 28, 2009 – 1:28 pm -

Background: Last month the US Department of Agriculture released a report on food deserts – areas in the United States where communities lack access to supermarkets and other outlets selling foods necessary for a healthy diet. According to the report, 2.3 million Americans live more than a mile from a supermarket and do not have access to a vehicle. The report goes on to say that the “urban core areas with limited food access are characterized by higher levels of racial segregation and greater income inequality.” In short, this problem largely affects low income communities and people of color. In recent years, there have been efforts by food justice activists around the country to bridge the food gap. One group in Chicago is taking back the food system online.

Digital Tools Being Used: Blog, Video, Camera
What Are They Doing: The Umoja Student Development Corporation is a Chicago-based, youth development organization which runs a six-week summer program in partnership with youth media group Free Spirit to film a short documentary about food deserts in the predominately African American community of North Lawndale.

“In my neighborhood, there are no grocery stores,” said Porsha Treadwell, a student intern in Umoja’s community builders program. “It is unfair that my community doesn’t have the same access to healthy foods as other communities. It’s just not right.”

In addition to learning how to grow organic foods in community gardens and polling residents about their food shopping habits, the student interns have also kept a blog for the duration of the program about their own eating habits and the various social and environmental injustices that block access to food equity.

Also on the blog, the youth have created a slide show, displaying photos of themselves learning how to use cameras for their documentary.

What is the Impact: Treadwell said this program has been a rewarding experience. She noted that she has had informative conversations with other residents and student interns about the food problem in the community, and how they now feel empowered to do something about it.

“When a community comes together, we can do powerful things,” she said.

Tags: food justice, Umoja Community Builders
Posted in Americas, Blogs, Digital Images, Video | No Comments »

Party Politics: Twittering towards Palin 2012?

Written by Tiby Kantrowitz on July 19, 2009 – 12:29 pm -

Following former American vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s announcement that she would resign as governor of Alaska, Palin-related sites have strongly increased in traffic and membership. Amid speculations about her reasons for resigning in the middle of her term of office, and a vagueness about her future plans on her main site, supporters advance Palin as a candidate for the 2012 presidential elections.

Tools: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Ning groups, blogs, Wordpress

How the tools are being used:

Palin-related digital outreach stretches back to Republican Presidential candidate John McCain choosing her as his running mate in the 2008 election. Since then, online tools have been used to communicate messages more directly to supporters, to acquire funds for both her political action committee (PAC) and for her legal defense fund, and to shape the beginnings of a movement towards advancing her for candidacy for the Presidency.

With over 442 updates and over 102,000 followers (increasing even at time of press), Palin’s Twitter usage (via Twitterberry and the web) and style mirrors the strategic rhetoric of her speech as voiced in her resignation announcement. Recent tweets promise

“I’ll stay in touch w/whomever wants via personal twtr site;launch July 26;in meantime it’s pleasure to update interested folks on State biz!” and

“elected is replaceable;Ak WILL progress! + side benefit=10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site.”

Her current handle, “AKGOVSarahPalin,” whose profile links to the Alaskan state government website, will be retired once she steps down. As part of a movement-building strategy, using Twitter builds community by creating a feeling of immediacy and fostering a sense of insider knowledge. This contributes towards preparing the way for whatever steps she chooses to take next.

Through social networks such as Team Sarah (almost 72,000 members) and blogs like Conservatives4Palin the movement has increased membership and raised funds in actions such as a week-long WebaThon carried out in June to raise money for the Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund.

Palin and her team created The Alaska Fund Trust to help allay legal expenses incurred defending herself from a series of ethics charges. While legal defense funds are nothing new, Palin’s fund differs from those of other political candidates in having an online presence. The fund’s site lists PDFs of legal documents on six other political defense funds for comparison. Whatever their other similarities or differences, none of the others had the backing of an online presence or community. Putting all activities online makes it easier for other online groups to organize activities in support of them.

For example, Conservatives4Palin.com’s attempt to raise the entire $500,000 requested by the defense fund was also its first attempt at grassroots political fundraising. Daily updates on the main site, viral video that attracted some news attention, emails and blog-postings, along with some limited support from well-known radio personalities who posted links, all helped to create momentum for the week-long effort. The campaign successfully increased traffic to the Conservatives4Palin site, leading to a high of over 495,000 pageviews for June, ’09 and nearly doubled the number of site visits from the previous month.

However, the site was ultimately unsuccessful in raising the full amount. The comments section mentions raising $109,620 over six days. Ultimately, lack of coordination with other prominent and well-organized sites such as Team Sarah, was cited in the comments section as one reason for not raising more money. Attention expected from prominent supportive journalists either did not come or arrived too late.”

With so many different Palin-related social networks, blogs, and websites, as well as conversations about Palin on other conservative sites, Sarah Palin Web Brigade, formerly the Sarah Palin Internet Coalition, was established “to facilitate communication and coordinate efforts between the many Internet-based groups that support Sarah Palin.” Currently, the site has 17 groups, most of which are dedicated to Internet communications strategies, but only one group has seen traffic within the last month.

Members are highly interactive, and Team Sarah has a specific group whose mission is to post immediate greetings on new members pages in an effort to retain membership and encourage participation. Currently, the social network has 71,870 members and 764 groups on its network, of which the featured 30 groups show activity within the last two weeks.

Some groups post discrete actions members can perform online, such as making donations, signing petitions, or offering videos or banners that they can watch or post on their personal sites. Forums post information on the latest online as well as offline activities such as rallies, parties and marches.

Analysis:

According to one Pew Internet & American Life Report, during the election cycle Obama supporters had a higher level of engagement in online digital media. Following the election, however, recognizing that difference groups in support of Palin are experimenting with ways of communicating about the issues. In contrast, as recently as a February post announcing the GOP Tech Summit, commenters on the Republican Party’s site expressed their dissatisfaction with the site’s failure to provide information on important political issues.

At the same time that Democrats were ultimately more successful in using digital tools for advocacy McCain supporters were more likely to use the Internet in general. Now however, when people search for political information online they look for opinions and views similar to their own, rather than alternative or challenging ones.

This provides Palin supporters with a clear opportunity to begin their efforts early, with a limited message, i.e. one person, rather than an entire party and to be able to stay relatively on message while refining their methodology in the process. This contrasts sharply versus the efforts of the Republican Party, which must promote a multitude of messages while battling the digital activism learning curve.

Based upon an exploration of the different groups and the activity within them, the nascent Palin campaign is quickly accelerating in confidence and skill at using digital media. Its offline strength has been its ability to reach people individually, and on an emotional level. Online, it seeks to do the same. Certainly, as a non-organized group without a real platform, the Palin campaign is freer than the Republican Party to make mistakes. However, because of its lack of organization it is also gaining valuable experience in how to build traction online. As it gets closer to 2012 this could make a vital distinction in who becomes the next President of the United States, not just who becomes the leading Conservative voice.

Tags: 2012, elections, Palin, twitter activism, USA
Posted in Americas, Blogs, Social Networks, Tactics, Tools | 2 Comments »

Tactic: Hondurans get online despite gov’t media ban

Written by Talia Whyte on July 9, 2009 – 2:58 am -

 

Tags: Honduras
Posted in Americas, Blogs, Microblogging, Tactics, Video | 1 Comment »

Quick Guide to Secure Communication

Written by DigiActive Team on June 26, 2009 – 2:30 pm -

UPDATE: Version 5.0 is now available in .doc form (click here to download).

Patrick Meier, DigiActive’s director of applied research, has created a very thorough list of ways to stay safe and protect your data while taking part in digital activism in repressive countries. We have reproduced Patrick’s list of tactics and technologies below and we encourage you to read his original post on his blog iRevolution to learn more about his conceptual framing of these issues as well as to read the useful feedback in the comments section. For more in-depth information on digital security for activists, check out Tactical Tech’s Security in-a-box.

Since this is quite a long list, here is a table of contents. The list below (which continues after the jump) contains both tactics and technologies for keeping safe while using the following devices and applications:

• Mobile Phones
• Digital Cameras
• Computers/Laptops
• Flash Disks
• E-mail
• Browsers and Web Sites
• VoIP (online telephony)
• Blogs and Social Networking Sites
• File Sharing
• Cyber Cafes

Security Tactics

• Mobile Phones
  • Purchase your mobile phone far from where you live. Buy lower-end, simple phones that do not allow third-party applications to be installed. Higher-end ones with more functionalities carry more risk. Use cash to purchase your phone and SIM card. Avoid town centers and find small or second-hand shops as these are unlikely to have security cameras. Do not give your real details if asked; many shops do not ask for proof of ID.
  • Use multiple SIM cards and multiple phones and only use pay-as-you go options; they are more expensive but required for anonymity.
  • Remove the batteries from your phone if you do not want to be geo-located and keep the SIM card out of the phone when not in use and store in separate places.Use your phone while in a moving vehicle to reduces probability of geo-location.
  • Never say anything that may incriminate you in any way.
  • Use code.
  • Use Beeping instead of SMS whenever possible. Standard text messages are visible to the network operator, including location, phone and SIM card identifiers. According to this recent paper, the Chinese government has established 2,800 SMS surveillance centers around the country to monitor and censor text messages. The Chinese firm Venus Info Tech Ltd sells real-time content monitoring and filtering for SMS.
  • Use fake names for your address book and memorize the more important numbers. Frequently delete your text messages and call history and replace them with random text messages and calls. The data on your phone is only deleted if it is written over with new data. This means that deleted SMS and contact numbers can sometimes be retrieved (with a free tool like unDeleteSMS. Check your phone’s settings to see whether it can be set to not store sent texts messages and calls.
  • Eavesdropping in mobile phone conversations is technically complicated although entirely possible using commercially available technology. Do not take mobile phones with you to meetings as they can be turned into potential listening/tracking devices. Network operators can remotely activate a phone as a recording device regardless of whether someone is using the phone or whether the phen is even switched on. This functionality is available on US networks.
  • Network operators can also access messages or contact information stored on the SIM card. If surveillance takes place with the co-operation of the operator, little can be done to prevent the spying.
  • Mobile viruses tend to spread easily via Bluetooth so the latter should be turned off when not in use.
  • Using open Bluetooth on phones in group situations, e.g., to share pictures, etc., can be dangerous. At the same time, it is difficult to incriminate any one person and a good way to share information when the cell phone network and Internet are down.
  • Discard phones that have been tracked and burn them; it is not sufficient to simply destroy the SIM card and re-use the phone.

• Digital Cameras
  • Keep the number of sensitive pictures on your camera to a minimum.
  • Add plenty of random non-threatening pictures (not of individuals) and have these safe pictures locked so when you do a “delete all” these pictures stay on the card.
  • Keep the battery out of the camera when not in use so it can’t be turned on by others.
  • Practice taking pictures without having to look at the view screen.

• Computers/Laptops
  • Use passphrases for all your sensitive data.
  • Keep your most sensitive files on flash disks and find safe places to hide them.
  • Have a contingency plan to physically destroy or get rid of your computer at short notice.

• Flash disks
  • Purchase flash disks that don’t look like flash disks.
  • Keep flash disks hidden.

• Email communication
  • Use code.
  • Use passphrases instead of passwords and change them regularly. Use letters, numbers and other characters to make them “c0mpLeX!”. Do not use personal information and changer your passphrases each month. Do not use the same password for multiple sites.
  • Never use real names for email addresses and use multiple addresses.
  • Discard older email accounts on a regular basis and create new ones.
  • Know the security, safety and privacy policies of providers and monitor any chances (see terms of service tracker).

• Browsers and websites
  • Turn off java and other potentially malicious add-ons.
    
  • Learn IP addresses of visited websites so that history shows only numbers and not names.
  • When browsing on a public computer, delete your private data (search history, passwords, etc.) before you leave.
  • When signing up for an account where you will be publishing sensitive media, do not use your personal email address and don’t give personal information.
  • Don’t download any software from pop-ups, they may be malicious and attack your computer or record your actions online.
  • Do not be logged in to any sensitive site while having another site open.

• VoIP
  • Just because your talking online doesn’t mean you are not under surveillance.
  • As with a cell or landline, use code do not give salient details about your activities, and do not make incriminating statements.
  • Remember that your online activities can be surveilled using offline techniques. It doesn’t matter if you are using encrypted VOIP at a cyber cafe if the person next to you is an under-cover police officer.
  • When possible, do not make sensitive VOIP calls in a cyber cafe. It is simply too easy for someone to overhear you. If you must, use code that doesn’t stand out.

• Blogs and social networking sites
  • Know the laws in your country pertaining to liability, libel, etc.
  • When signing up for a blog account where you will be publishing sensitive content, do not use you personal email address or information.
  • In your blog posts and profile page, do not post pictures of yourself or your friends, do not use your real name, and do not give personal details that could help identify you (town, school, employer, etc.).
  • Blog platforms like wordpress allow uses to automatically publish a post on a designated date and time. Use this functionality to auto-publish on a different day when you are away from the computer.
  • On social networks, create one account for activism under a false but real-sounding name (so your account won’t be deleted) but don’t tell your friends about it. The last thing you want is a friend writing on your wall or tagging you in a photo and giving away your identity.
  • Even if you delete your account on a social networking site, your data will remain, so be very careful about taking part in political actions (i.e., joining sensitive groups) online.
  • Never join a sensitive group with your real account. Use your fake account to join activism groups. (The fake account should not be linked to your fake email).
  • Don’t use paid services. Your credit card can be linked back to you.

• File sharing
  • Use a shared Gmail account with a common passphrase and simply save emails instead of sending. Change passphrase monthly.
  • For sharing offline, do not label storage devices (CDs, flash drives) with the true content. If you burn a CD with an illegal video or piece of software on it, write an album label on it.
  • Don’t leave storage devices in places where they would be easily found if your office or home were searched (i.e., on a table, in a desk drawer).
  • Keep copies of your data on two flash drives and keep them hidden in separate locations.
  • When thinking of safe locations, consider who else has access. Heavily-traveled locations are less safe.
  • Don’t travel with sensitive data on you unless absolutely necessary. If you need to, make sure to hide it on your person or “camouflage” it (label a data CD as a pop music CD). See Sneakernet.

• Internet Cafes
  • Assume you are being watched.
  • Assume computers at cyber cafes are tracking key strokes and capturing screenshots.
  • Avoid cyber cafes without an easy exit and have a contingency plan if you need to leave rapidly.

Security Technologies

• Mobile phones
  • Use CryptoSMS, SMS 007 or Kryptext to text securely (this requires java-based phones).
  • Use Android Guardian as soon as it becomes available.
  • Access mobile versions of websites as they are usually not blocked. In addition, connecting to mobile websites provides for faster connections.

• Digital cameras
  • Use scrubbing software such as: JPEG stripper to remove the metadata (Exif data) from your pictures before you upload/email.
  • Have a safe Secure Digital Card (SD) that you can swap in. Preferably, use a mini SD card with a mini SD-SD converter. Then place the mini SD into a compatible phone for safekeeping.

• Computers/Laptops
  • Use an effective anti-virus program and ensure it updates itself online at least once a day: TMIS, McAfee, Symantec/Norton, AVG, Avira, NOD32, Kaspersky.
  • Do not use illegal, cracked, hacked, pwned, warez software.
  • Keep your software programs (operating systems, productivity suites, browsers) up-to-date with the latest software updates.
  • Use software to encrypt your hard drive: Bitlocker, TrueCrypt, PGP Whole Disk Encryption, Check Point, Dekart Private Disk.
  • Use a different file type to hide your sensitive files. For example, the .mov file extension will make a large file look like a movie.
  • Mac users can use Little Snitch to track all the data that goes into and out of your computer.
  • From a technical perspective, there’s no such thing as the delete function. Your deleted data is eventually written over with new data. There are two common ways to wipe sensitive data from your hard drive or storage device. You can wipe a single file or you can wipe all of the ‘unallocated’ space on the drive. Eraser is a free and open-source secure deletion tool that is extremely easy to use.

• Flash disks
  • StealthySurfer USB Flash Drive
  • The secure browsing Tor software can be installed on flash disk.
  • Using a USB watch calls less attention as do the USB ear rings and this credit card USB flash disk.

• Email communication
  • Use https when using Gmail.
  • Use encrypted email platforms such as Hushmail and RiseUp.

• Browsers and websites
  • Use Firefox and get certain plugins to follow website tracking such as ghostery and adblock, adart to remove ads/trackers.
  • User Tor software or Psiphon to browse privately and securely.
  • I shan’t list access points for secure browsers, Proxy servers and VPNs here. Please email me for a list.
  • Always use https in “Settings/General/Browser Connection.”

• VoIP
  • Use Skype but not TOM Skype (Chinese version). Note that Skype is not necessarily 100% secure since no one has access to the source code to verify.
  • Off The Record (OTR) is a good encryption plugin. For example, use Pidgin with OTR (you need to add the plug-in yourself).
  • Gizmo offer encryption for voice conversations, and then only if you are calling another VoIP user, as opposed to a mobile or landline telephone. However, because neither application is open-source, independent experts have been unable to test them fully and ensure that they are secure.
  • Adium is a free IM application for Macs with built-in OTR encryption that integrates most other IM applications.

• Blogs and social networking platforms
  • There are no safe social networks. The best way to be safe on a social network is fake account and a proxy server.
  • The anonymous blogging platform Invisiblog no longer exists, so the best bet now is WordPress + Proxy (preferably Tor) + anonymity of content.
  • Log out of facebook.com when not using the site.

• File sharing
  • Use Drop.io to create a private, secure media sharing site.
  • Use BasecampHQ with secure/SSL option to create more specific usernames and passwords for each user or remote site.

• Internet Cafe
  • Tor can be installed on flash disk and used at Internet cafe and also used from LiveCDs if flash drives are not allowed.

• Other potential tech
  • LiveScribe (see explanation here).
  • FreedomFone

image: amelungc/Flickr

Tags: Security
Posted in Blogs, Flash Drives, Guides & Resources, Mobile Phones, Security, VOIP | 5 Comments »