this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Technology

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What a newsroom police raid teaches us about encrypting our devices (freedom.press)
submitted 1 year ago by Elephant0991@lemmy.bleh.au to c/technology@beehaw.org
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Summary

  • The Marion County Record newsroom in Kansas was raided by police, who seized two cellphones, four computers, a backup hard drive, and reporting materials.

  • 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.

  • Modern iPhones and Android phones are encrypted by default, but older devices may not be.

  • Desktop computers typically do not have encryption enabled by default, so it is important to turn this on manually.

  • Use strong random passwords and keep them in a password manager.

  • 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.

  • You can encrypt USB storage devices using BitLocker To Go on Windows, or Disk Utility on macOS.

  • All major desktop operating systems support Veracrypt, which can be used to encrypt entire drives.

Main Take-aways

  • Encrypt your devices, drives, and USBs.

  • Use strong random passwords and password manager.

  • Have multiple backups.

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[–] RickRussell_CA@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Although you don't have to be smarter than the experts, just smarter than police. Few local PDs can bring the kinds of resources to bear to do a decrypt on a properly encrypted data store.

Obviously if you're pissing off major state actors, all bets are off -- they are probably already surveilling you and saw you type your password through a zoom lens pointed at your window, or worse.