Edward Snowden New Job Involves Shielding Reporters From Surveillance

By A.M. Uygongco | Feb 16, 2017 04:07 AM EST

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Edward Snowden has a new job and it's protecting journalists from surveillance.

In an exclusive, encrypted video-chat interview with Wired, Edward Snowden talked about what he does as President of Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to defend adversarial journalism. He spoke about his current projects and how Trump's administration makes defending the press all the more necessary.

Wired writes that among the software that Snowden is developing is a play-and-plug version of the encrypted video-chat software that he himself uses called Jitsi. The version can be installed easily by journalists on their computers.

Another one is SecureDrop. According to Wired, it is a Tor-based system for the uploading of leaked materials, information, and tips. It is reportedly being used by The New York Times and The Guardian.

Snowden has also been working with hackers and other programmers to develop hardware and apps, reports Wired. The website writes that he is teaming up with hacker Bunnie Huang to create a hardware mod for iPhone which will detect a malware that transmits data.

In addition to that, Sunder is Snowden's collaboration with Frederic Jacobs, a programmer of the encryption app Signal. Using Sunder, journalists can encrypt data and only retrieve them if the passwords of several other colleagues are combined, writes Wired. 

The whistleblower built these protective software or "shields" because he wanted to preserve confidentiality, to protect reporters and their sources when they are up against state surveillance. He told Wired that he and his team are trying to provide these tools to make the game fairer.

With Trump as President, Snowden and his executive director Trevor Timm, worry that even more indictments, compared to that of Obama's administration, will be issued seeing as the new President has no love for the media.

In other news, even companies and firms should establish a policy on whistleblowing, writes Jobs & Hire. Click here to read more about it.

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