Computer safety hints for whistleblowers and sources

Computer safety hints for whistleblowers and sources 1
Tips

If you need to contact us electronically about a private remember, you can now not need a third birthday party to know about it. So make positive your computer doesn’t help them achieve this.
Contact the Guardian securely
Keep it private. Illustration: Keep your documents comfortable
If you’ve got computer files that you want to preserve cozy, shop them under encryption. Most modern-day pc operating structures have alternatives to encrypt all files on the laptop — for example, BitLocker for Windows and FileVault for Mac. Turn them on.

For simply sensitive files, use PGP encryption or on-the-fly encryption software programs, including VeraCrypt. Then, store the encrypted documents on a detachable storage tool such as a USB stick or external hard disk, and maintain that hidden or locked away.

For all sorts of encryption, use lengthy passwords that could be difficult to hack, and don’t use the identical password for more than one reason.

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Decide what laptop to apply
If you’re involved approximately confidentiality, we endorse that you don’t touch us from a work laptop. It’s a secure guess that your enterprise can see the hobby on its networks and device.

Contacting us from home also can be difficult. If you’re now not the usage of Tor (see underneath), it’s possible communications might be traced lower back to you via your home IP deal. And if you’re already beneath suspicion, your property network could itself be targeted. If you pick to apply your very own pc, make sure the operating machine and software program is up to date. Is your pc jogging anti-malware software program with cutting-edge definitions? If it has built-in firewall software, flip it on.

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To cover your identity from prying eyes, it could be more secure to use a computer in a web cafe or a public wifi community. Computers in net cafes might not have the software you need, and public networks may be less cozy (technically speaking) than a home or work connection. However, their mass use can also help cover who you’re. Think about whether or not you may be on CCTV, or if the time and place you get online may want to offer a clue to your identification.

Whatever pc you operate, remember that your online hobby reveals your IP address to the net and that e-mail and browser software program normally facts records of what you’ve been doing. So use the non-public surfing or incognito choice to deactivate this document. Better nevertheless, use Tor.

Hide who you’re online with Tor
The Tor community bounces your net activity thru a series of relays to hide the source place. This obfuscates your IP deal, making it very hard to check where a message or website goes to got here from. Tor browsers can also be configured to discard your surfing history and reduce the number of records you screen approximately yourself simultaneously as online. The Guardian’s SecureDrop carrier can only be reached thru Tor.

To get the right of entry to the Tor community, you can want to put in Tor software. It’s unfastened and works on Windows, Macs, and Linux-fashion operating systems. Use it similar to you would an everyday browser, inclusive of Firefox.

Tor enables to cover you from snoopers on the internet; however, if your real laptop is itself being monitored, Tor can’t protect you from that. Furthermore, beneath some occasions — consisting of at paintings — the very use of the Tor software program ought to attract interest. So go someplace you won’t be monitored, or guard yourself towards being hacked at supply by using a secure operating machine that includes Tails.

For most safety, use Tails
Tails, which is brief for The Amnesiac and Incognito Live System, is a laptop working gadget designed to preserve protection. It connects to the net the usage of the Tor network; it enables shield in opposition to nearby monitoring; and while you log out, it wipes any unencrypted content, leaving no evidence of what you’ve been up to. It is a long way greater relaxed than using a regular pc or cell phone.

You don’t want a separate pc to run Tails. Instead, you can download it and set it onto a USB stick, after which pressure an ordinary pc to begin using the USB stick rather than its internal tough drive.
What is computer imaginative and prescient syndrome – and the way can I prevent it?
For the hundreds of thousands of folks who paintings in front of a screen, headaches, sore eyes, and a painful neck are all too common. Fortunately, there are easy steps you can take to avoid pain
Man with neck pain sitting at a computer
Back-breaking paintings? It shouldn’t be.

Do you sit in the front of a display screen at work for hours, then leave with a headache, sore, dry, blurry eyes, and a painful neck? If so, welcome to laptop vision syndrome (CVS), a situation just waiting to occur to individuals who use a display for greater than three hours a day. Unfortunately, this occurs to be quite a few us – approximately 70 million international. At the risk of being alarmist, a few researchers argue that CVS is the “No 1 occupational chance of the 21st century”. But again, pain, anxiety complications, and soreness aren’t inevitable effects of display time – perhaps we have to be more cautious. At the very least, we need to inspire our kids to broaden good screen conduct.

A look at 642 college students in Iran between a long time of 11 and 18 observed that about 70% used computer systems for at the least hours a day. Up to 1/2 pronounced eye strain, blurred vision, dry eyes, and headaches. The symptoms had been worse in people who have been lengthy- or quick-sighted. While most were given better fast after coming manner from the display, some took an afternoon to recover. About one-0.33 sat too close to the display.

What are we able to do approximately it?

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Eyes work more difficult when they read from a display screen because laptop pics are manufactured from pixels, tiny dots with a shiny center, and blurred edges. Printed images and words, through comparison, are solid and properly described. Our eyes constantly have to consciousness, loosen up, and refocus to study the pixels, which tires out the muscular tissues. The 20-20-20 rule to fight this says you have to take a 20-second to destroy every 20 mins and focus on points 20ft from your laptop. When we have a look at a display screen, we don’t blink as a good deal as we usually do, so consciously doing so will moisten your eyes and decrease inflammation. Flat screens with anti-glare filters are typed to eyes, as is having good enough mild. If you’ve got glasses, check your prescription, and do not forget lenses that lessen glare.

When it involves the gap you sit from the display, the way you take a seat, and the most effective degree for studying files, it becomes an alternative prescriptive. It’s greater comfortable to look down at a display screen, so keep yours 15 to 20 stages beneath eye degree (about 10-13cm, or 4-5in), as measured from the center of the screen. The screen must be forty six-66cm (18-26in) away from your face; any closer and your eyes must see paintings too hard to consciousness on the display screen. Sit in a right chair, even supposing it’s unpleasant so that you have help inside the small of your back and might sit with your toes flat on the ground. Oh, and read more books – they may be higher for you.