Infromation security

Journalists who report leaked information could be jailed under amended act

The British government has announced plans to criminalise the practice of reporting on leaked documents, in an update of the Espionage Act. The move, which could see journalists jailed for as much as 14 years, is being called a campaign against whistleblowing, by detractors.

Over the past few years, as surveillance of citizens has increased by countries like the U.S. and UK, leaks from whistleblowers and hackers have become much more common place. People like Edward Snowden and Chelsea manning have been criminalised for their revelatory acts, while journalists have aided them in getting the information out to the public. That may change in the future if the proposed tweaks to British law are made.

Infromation security

Most Students Don’t Know When News Is Fake, Stanford Study Finds

Preteens and teens may appear dazzlingly fluent, flitting among social-media sites, uploading selfies and texting friends. But they’re often clueless about evaluating the accuracy and trustworthiness of what they find.

Some 82% of middle-schoolers couldn’t distinguish between an ad labeled “sponsored content” and a real news story on a website, according to a Stanford University study of 7,804 students from middle school through college. The study, set for release Tuesday, is the biggest so far on how teens evaluate information they find online. Many students judged the credibility of newsy tweets based on how much detail they contained or whether a large photo was attached, rather than on the source.

Infromation security

Security fears over FBI contracting out highly sensitive surveillance documents

The FBI has contracted out with a private firm to handle, distribute and monitor highly sensitive surveillance documents, in an arrangement veteran FBI agents consider a potential privacy and counterintelligence risk.

Since 2015, the FBI has entrusted a national-security professional services contractor, Aveshka, to prepare, organize, courier and disseminate surveillance materials, including documentation leading to court orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), the legal wellspring of domestic national-security surveillance.

Neither the company nor its employees have been accused of any wrongdoing, but national security has come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the arrest last week of a Booz Allen Hamilton employee on suspicion of stealing National Security Agency computer code. FBI veterans and other surveillance experts consider the bureau to be effectively inserting a private firm as a middleman in surveillance, which they consider an inherent and seemingly unnecessary security vulnerability.