So Zack Whittaker (of TechCrunch and this week in security fame) and I were chatting about some of the many threats we’ve had to deal with over the years — threats of litigation, criminal charges, and threats by criminals all leapt immediately to mind. Maybe one day, someone will create a bingo card for countries researchers and journalists can’t visit, but for now, we were just kicking around the idea of co-authoring an article or co-hosting a panel at some conference.
Then it dawned on us that it might be more productive to collect data on the threats faced by security researchers and journalists reporting on cybercrime and cybercriminals. We created a pilot survey to start to increase awareness and promote more research and serious consideration.
The survey ran from December 20 to January 18. We’ve now analyzed some of the data from the 112 respondents, and have written up some of the preliminary findings. But there is so much more that needs to be investigated in depth and with a larger and representative sample. We hope that this pilot survey will generate more interest and determination to identify — and then address — the risks that some of us face.
To support this topic, DataBreaches now has a new news category called “Threats,” where we will start to compile research or news items about threats researchers and journalists face. To get started, it’s been populated with a few items that appeared on this site in past years.
Read the report: Under Pressure: Exploring the effect of legal and criminal threats on security researchers and journalists” in .html or download the .pdf version.
And don’t forget to read Zack’s post about the survey!