[Cryptography] ? recommendations for secure communications

John Gilmore gnu at toad.com
Thu Oct 12 23:35:53 EDT 2017


> Suppose you were a reporter at a small local newspaper. No great
> tech skills and no great resources.  Still, you want people to be
> able to send you confidential tips and leaked documents.

No great tech skills => don't tell your tipsters to use a computer!

Tell them to use the postal service, putting their info into a plain
envelope with no (or not your) return address.  Use an ordinary,
common stamp, not a postage meter.  Don't lick the stamp; use
self-adhesive ones.  Make sure the envelope has enough postage for the
weight, if it's more than two or three pages.  Drop it in a mailbox
that doesn't have a camera pointing at it.  Wear surgical or other
gloves when touching the letter and envelope.

Don't print out or copy the info on a laser printer; use an inkjet
printer (modern fax machines often also work as inkjet-based
copiers).  Use ordinary paper from an office supplies store.
Rather than figure out how to get your inkjet printer to reliably
print the address on an envelope, you could use a 'window' envelope
that shows the destination address that's printed on the ordinary
paper inside it.

	John


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