Collect all your evidence into one large archive, upload it somewhere and make it known that if you die of anything other than natural causes, that information will become available to EVERYONE.
Read up on how “dead man’s switches” work. If you don’t send a signal online, log into a particular account on a regular basis, that sends the release signal.
But why bother holding back in the first place. If this is whistleblower information like Boeing safety issues, there’s no point in setting up a dead man’s switch. You want to release it all immediately in the first place, because keeping it to yourself undermines the point of blowing the whistle
Then the incentive becomes to stop a whistleblower faster if they had a dead-man cache than if they released it all at once. There’s no guarantee that the whistleblower is being honest or is capable enough to undertake something like that but there’s always a risk that the whistleblower may disclose that information anyway. Better to stop the whistleblower by arresting them first and deal with the potential fallout than negotiate. Now the whistleblower’s reputation is ruined, if they’re behind bars they’re effectively silenced, and they’re as good as dead to society without all that messy work trying to fake a suicide.
Man, lots of crazy, unrealistic advice here.
One person literally said to live in a motel. No, do not live alone.
The answer is pretty simple, live in a community house with like 8 other people.
Don’t leak. Spread seldom rumours online about the company with plausible deniability. Find a crazy-er person and/or group. Continue spreading dots. Spread info to Youtubers. Others with a platform. Use a VM, a password manager inside the VM. After 12 months, delete all your credentials and the VM. The system can not protect you. Corps rule democracy. Don’t trust the system. Spread the info until it reaches critical mass or the faith in the system collapses. Your life is worth more than some righteous leak. See the Pentagon Papers life. He lived a very humble life afterwards.
NOTE: method untested and invented just now.
how’d you find the guy?
Easy. We had a list of the fifteen or so guys that did that specific part of the job, we got their IP addresses, watched them for a while, and as it turns out, two of them regularly use a VPN and send all of their traffic to Canada.
How long do you think it would take to figure out whether or not which one of these boys are harmless software pirates, or their man?
People do all of the work in the world without knowing that your preparation will blow your cover.
Have you ever visited TailsOS’s website off of a VPN? Could the Feds find out? Do you think the other guys have the same level of deniability?
That trail is not washing off. You even knowing or having a history of using a Linux iso is suspicion enough if the rest of the suspects are all boring chuds.
Despite all precautions, if you are one of the few persons whose circumstances could allow the leak, then they’ll narrow it down to you. Especially if you were the reluctant one, the one that raised ethical issues etc…
Do
- Live on cash from different ATMs;
- Stay at a hotel/motel that changes weekly;
- Rent a car and change it at different rental locations every week;
- Communicate only with your lawyer;
- Record everything in an official manner as soon as possible.
- Stay offline
- Get a dumb phone, and if you must have a computer get a new laptop with no wifi or mobile data hardware;
Do Not
- Go anywhere you don’t need to go;
- Tell anyone where you are;
- Go to the middle of nowhere, this reduces your escape routes unless you’re Bear Grylls;
- Confront anyone, they can have you arrested and prison violence makes their job much easier;
- Go to the news without your lawyer;
- Use a smartphone, or any device that was yours before and is capable of connecting online;
And most of all don’t listen to the billy badasses in here. If a multi billion dollar corporation wants you dead and is willing to break the law they can afford a lot of very nasty people. You aren’t getting the tactical training to stand against them in that short amount of time, that takes years and dedication and even then you’ll be learning how to run away in a deadly manner. Your best defense is to be ghost except when you show up for court dates and depositions. That’s what the Secret Service Witness Protection Program does and it works if you have discipline.
*whose adversary
While it won’t help you getting suicided, setting up a deadman’s switch on the cloud that will release your testimony is definitely worth doing.
With whistleblower information, why hold it back in the first place? Wouldn’t it be better to release it immediately if they might kill you either way?
Additionally, give a copy of all the documents to your lawyer to release in the case of your death. Multiple Deadman switches are better than one, especially one that’s controlled by a person and not just hoping your cloud service doesn’t go down after you’re dead.
Absolutely. I was gonna edit my comment to include that but you beat me to the punch.
Was just looking at something like how to execute on that this morning as my morning coffee dive down an internet rabbit hole.
There’s this guy named Michael Bazzell who used to make a podcast about stuff like this, and he also wrote a book called Extreme Privacy that I thumbed through this morning. He talks about where to go to get a ghost address, how to buy and set up a cell phone to be virtually anonymous, how to buy a house anonymously or how to re-title your car to a trust or LLC, and pretty much everything in between. Even talks about what information to not divulge when you go to the ER and details what to consider you put on your kids birth certificate.
So if anyone is paranoid enough to know how to avoid getting suicided, I’m going to bet on this guy’s advice
Do you know where to find the podcast? Its seems like they dissappeared from the internet 🤨
He’s THAT good
His podcast ended and he’s worked to remove them where possible. While I don’t know if there are archives of it I can vouch for the quality of his books. They receive updates throughout the year and are step by step guides on how to lock down certain aspects of your life. Its worth purchasing.
Only use encrypted communication, use a phone running GraphineOS, and your computer should be running a secure OS like QubesOS (in addition to Tor and/or MullvadVPN). Basically you need maximum security and maximum privacy, a Thinkpad running Libreboot is the best laptop and a Pixel will be the best phone.
Good suggestions, however, I don’t think even pigeon carriers will stop yourself from mysteriously dying of suicide with 2 shots in the back of your head.
Of course, at the same time its not harmful to do as much as you can. However, as the saying goes “the game was rigged from the start”
Take the advice offered by journalists on how to contact them privately and avoid getting caught. I.e. secure and protect evidence without raising suspicion. Contact a reputable journalist via some secure means of communication. Let them take over and keep silent. Don’t brag or something.
Most good newspapers offer something like PGP encrypted mail, SecureDrop over TOR and more to talk to them.
This children is why the need for private communication isn’t something you can laugh away by claiming you have nothing to hide.
Absolutely. There are many reasons, but attacks on journalists/whistleblowers and the malicious potential of collated data in a capitalist oligarchy are the first two that come to mind.
Yeah but I am a wagie within the system… Its all good, I am daddy’s team
Encrypt email with anyone who publishes a key. If “bad” emails are the only ones you encrypt, then that metadata can be used to raise suspicion of you and to trace your contacts.
Amongst everything others have said, if you get sucked into an interview or press conference, directly and firmly state that, for the record, you are not suicidal and that if you should die, it was absolutely not suicide. You believe that you’ve become a target and fear for your safety and life.
It doesn’t matter if you believe yourself to be a target in the privacy of your head. Always say that you are early, often, loudly, and to anyone who will listen.
Didn’t work for McAfee
Probably because he was absolutely bananas
Do ou know that „Affe“ is the german word for monkey?
I did not. I like it :)
Is a giraffe a neck monkey?
No, a greedy one. „Gier“ means greed.
Does it really matter that much? I figure either way they’re going to get you if they want and the media will treat it like a suicide regardless of how much you publicly telegraph what’s going to happen ahead of time.
Yes of course it matters. If he wasn’t lying and acting like an insane criminal for a decade or so, people would be inclined to believe him.
The guy acted like people with your same thought process could magically absolve him of his crimes and lies because he made a wild claim that he would be killed. He hadn’t said a goddamned thing for years pertaining to himself that was true. He was a lunatic and a murderer (rapist too iirc?). It makes all the sense in the world he would be lying about expecting to be killed too
I just end all my public speeches with “and Carthage must be destroyed.”
Edward Snowden is a prime example of how to handle it.
Only communicated via encrypted channels.
When revealing himself and his leak, he had already left his home country. He was trying to make it to South America when the US canceled his passport. US went so far as to bring down a sovereign nations Presidential plane to search it for Snowden.
I’m sure he has still had to worry about his personal safety after getting stuck in a country he wasn’t planning on getting stuck in.
But the reality is you have to meticulously plan and basically abandon your entire life and move somewhere they cannot touch you. When it comes to US companies, you generally will have to do like Snowden and avoid US-allied nations.
See also: Steven Donziger and Chevron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Donziger
Donziger was placed under house arrest in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of criminal contempt of court, which arose during his appeal against Kaplan’s RICO decision, when he refused to turn over electronic devices he owned to Chevron’s forensics experts. In July 2021, US District Judge Loretta Preska found him guilty, and Donziger was sentenced to 6 months in jail in October 2021. While Donziger was under house arrest in 2020, twenty-nine Nobel laureates described the actions taken by Chevron against him as “judicial harassment.” Human rights campaigners called Chevron’s actions an example of a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP). In April 2021, six members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus demanded that the Department of Justice review Donziger’s case. In September 2021, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the pre-trial detention imposed on Donziger was illegal and called for his release. Having spent 45 days in prison and a combined total of 993 days under house arrest, Donziger was released on April 25, 2022.
US corporations can and will bring the weight of the US “justice” system on whistleblowers. The US is not unique in this regard. Whatever giant company you’re whistleblowing against, you better GTFO of the country they are based in.
Yeah so many people talk about Snowden going to Russia and ignore the fact that he was only in Russia transferring to another plane when his passport was cancelled stranding him there. The choice was basically stay there, or go back to the US, and that wasn’t really an option.
Why the US would want to leave him in Russia as a potential asset for Russian intelligence to break instead of letting him get to a different country that isn’t such a direct threat though is a really good question.
Easy. They got to call him a Russian operative and brush it under the rug. Go ask the average person about snowden
They can say whatever they want about him without actually stranding him in Russia to literally be a potential further leak. The info he leaked is different than his knowledge of processes and systems.
But he was a data analyst so his knowledge of processes and systems would be basically useless as all he would have known would have been how to access the file stores that were being gathered and provided by other agencies for his agency to review. It’s not like if Russia put him on a rack and tortured him. They’d find much useful information. At worst they would be able to confirm things they already very strongly suspect.
Those Boeing Whistleblowers should’ve left the country 😓
Preferably, not via Boeing aircraft.
The United States - Freedom of Corruption, Indignity and Distrust for All!
Snowden was an IT expert, it certainly helps. His book is a great read.
US went so far as to bring down a sovereign nations Presidential plane to search it for Snowden.
I wonder if Morales got any concessions for agreeing to land his plane and allow a search.
He was a democratically elected leader from the left in Latin America. Not being murdered in his sleep could be considered special concessions.
It’s pretty sad that not only are we at a point where this is a very legitimate question, but that the answer is something that should be taught in schools.
If you have a union…
School aint teaching this shit. That would imply that you should be a whistleblower or be a witness to wrongdoings. No way governments would let this be taught.
This is what parents should be teaching at home.
Dead Man’s Switch. Something something Notary Public
Whatever Snowden did
And you’ll need to publicly advertise that you are using one for it to be effective.
Also, the payload needs to be worse than what you are already disclosing…
Not necessarily. They just need to want to prevent it from being disclosed more than they want to kill you.
Worth noting that this is something that can change over time. For example, if Snowden had done such a thing, it would be essentially useless now, since the known and accepted activities of the US government are now worse than what Snowden revealed.
