[tor-reports] Ohio University Scripps J School Trip Report, 07-09 November 2012

Andrew Lewman andrew at torproject.is
Tue Nov 13 16:44:44 UTC 2012


# Ohio University EW Scripps Journalism School Trip Report

Danny O'Brien of [Committee to Protect Journalists](https://cpj.org/)
and I were invited to talk to journalism students at the [E.W. Scripps
School of Journalism](http://scrippsjschool.org/) in [Ohio
University](http://www.ohio.edu/). The topics were around computer
security risks and protections from the perspective of journalists. CPJ
maintains a great guide for reporters to survive dangerous situations
appropriately called the [Journalist Security
Guide](https://cpj.org/reports/2012/04/journalist-security-guide.php).
This covers both offline and online situations. My role was to highlight
the experience of Tor, what we've seen, and how we've protected both
citizen and professional journalists the world over. I also covered
using [Tails](https://tails.boum.org) as one tool in your toolbox to
let you do the work of a journalist from anywhere.

[Andy
Alexander](http://scrippsjschool.org/faculty/faculty_details.php?oak=
alexanda) was our host for the three days. We started off with a great
dinner to share information about what both Danny and I have learned
over the past few years in working with journalists. Andy has a long
career of experience in foreign correspondence and reporting. His
experiences covering a few decades highlight the need for journalists
to learn how to protect themselves when reporting anywhere in the world.

The next day was a first-year class about journalism in general. Danny
and I presented to around 200 students. The computer couldn't read my
USB drive, so I couldn't use [my
presentation](https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/presentations/2012
-11-08-Scripps-IIJ-Presentation.pdf), rather I used the website to
quickly cover Tor, how it works, and why journalists should care. I
then discussed a range of attacks against an individual from fairly
basic malware infections through more advanced traffic analysis and
content swapping. My [PirateBox](http://wiki.daviddarts.com/PirateBox)
did work, so anyone could get the presentations and copies of Tor
locally if they so desired.

We had a great lunch with [Professor
Kalyango](http://scrippsjschool.org/faculty/faculty_details.php?oak=
kalyango) and then head off to [WOUB](http://woub.org/news) for a 30
minute podcast/radio interview.

Afterwards, we went off to the main panel event to talk to fourth year
and graduate students about online security and the risks for
journalists. Once again, the USB drive couldn't be read, but the
[PirateBox](http://wiki.daviddarts.com/PirateBox) worked fine. The
lecture lasted around 90 minutes with a Q&A session. Unlike the
freshman class, a number of people had questions or wanted to verify
what Danny and I stated.

We were then taken out to dinner by the top students at the J School.
It was a great Middle Eastern kabob place to have an hour of
discussions with the students.

And thanks to [Lindsay](http://www.athensinteractivist.com/) for
getting up at 06:30 to drive me to the airport and for the great
discussion along the way. I look forward to reading her dispatches from
East Africa in the near future.

-- 
Andrew
http://tpo.is/contact
pgp 0x6B4D6475


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