More protection is needed for activists, journalists and whistle-blowers.
Speaking at the Def Con conference, Electronic Frontier Foundation members Kirk Opsahl, Eva Galperin, Yan Zhu, Mark Jaycox and Nate Cardozo claimed that security is broken on the intelligence side, and whistle-blowers now have to go through the system and individuals, and they warn managers who do not listen. “You also cannot go to congressional committees as the system is broken, and there are no protections,” Jaycox said.
Opsahl agreed that protections are not strong enough, and while they allow a whistle-blower to speak to an inspector general to make a complaint to Government, often it is not acted upon and the EFF was not satisfied with what was being said.
Cardozo said: “The rules of protection only apply to Federal Government employees and not to contractors.” Opsahl said that this can be fixed, as in the US the first amendment can be used, but he suspected that the threat may discourage people.
Zhu said that there are technology options, and you can decide if it is suitable or not, but we need more thinking now on how to protect journalists and whistle-blowers, and while there is more technology out there, you have to think of the NSA as an adversary.
