4 ms·

Maybe I'm overlooking something here, but I don't know why leakers don't just use a forever stamp and drop something in the mail. Securing electronic communicat

Maybe I'm overlooking something here, but I don't know why leakers don't just use a forever stamp and drop something in the mail. Securing electronic communications seems freakishly hard by comparison. Is there some reason that is an obviously bad idea?

ThrustVectoring 8y ago
There's a significant amount of physical evidence from that. You'd have to make sure it's clean of any fingerprints and DNA (hair) for one. Plus printers will typically inject watermarks into the document. Handwriting is definitely a thing to be analyzed. And the location which you mail stuff from leaks another few bits of information. It's probably a better idea than email, but not by all that much.
shalmanese 8y ago
That's how Reality Winner leaked and she got caught via printer microdots.
- graylights 8y ago
  source? She printed it on a work printer. They had a short list of everyone that accessed the file. Microdots were both unnecessary and useless towards finding who did it. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/accused-leaker-is-indicted-for-disclosing-classified-report https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/accused-l...
ipsin 8y ago
Using the postal service might be lower-risk, but it's not risk free. If you try that, don't forget about the Mail Covers [1] program. If you're mailing a reporter at the NY Times, you're at risk if you use your own handwriting. You might also be at risk if you use a printed label [2]. There's also the risk that your mail will be intercepted, and I wouldn't be too shocked to discover that government agencies were selectively (or not-so-selectively) reading our mail [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_cover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_cover [2]https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d... [3] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/53dk3n/this-camera-can-read-a-book-without-opening-it https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/53dk3n/this-camer...
- slededit 8y ago
  Its really sad how low trust in the rule of law has become. US Mail used to be sacrosaint. Damaging a mailbox is a felony to give an idea of how strong the law is in this area.
cm2187 8y ago
Anything you print or xerox is fingerprinted (the infamous yellow dots). You would need to write by hand and leave no fingerprint. It’s not trivial.
creaghpatr 8y ago
They still do! Probably wouldn't work as well for classified Gov info but it still happens. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/insider/the-time-i-found-donald-trumps-tax-records-in-my-mailbox.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/insider/the-time-i-found-...

ThrustVectoring 8y ago

There's a significant amount of physical evidence from that. You'd have to make sure it's clean of any fingerprints and DNA (hair) for one. Plus printers will typically inject watermarks into the document. Handwriting is definitely a thing to be analyzed. And the location which you mail stuff from leaks another few bits of information. It's probably a better idea than email, but not by all that much.

shalmanese 8y ago

That's how Reality Winner leaked and she got caught via printer microdots.

graylights 8y ago
source? She printed it on a work printer. They had a short list of everyone that accessed the file. Microdots were both unnecessary and useless towards finding who did it. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/accused-leaker-is-indicted-for-disclosing-classified-report https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/accused-l...

ipsin 8y ago

Using the postal service might be lower-risk, but it's not risk free. If you try that, don't forget about the Mail Covers [1] program. If you're mailing a reporter at the NY Times, you're at risk if you use your own handwriting. You might also be at risk if you use a printed label [2]. There's also the risk that your mail will be intercepted, and I wouldn't be too shocked to discover that government agencies were selectively (or not-so-selectively) reading our mail [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_cover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_cover [2]https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d... [3] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/53dk3n/this-camera-can-read-a-book-without-opening-it https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/53dk3n/this-camer...

slededit 8y ago
Its really sad how low trust in the rule of law has become. US Mail used to be sacrosaint. Damaging a mailbox is a felony to give an idea of how strong the law is in this area.

cm2187 8y ago

Anything you print or xerox is fingerprinted (the infamous yellow dots). You would need to write by hand and leave no fingerprint. It’s not trivial.

creaghpatr 8y ago

They still do! Probably wouldn't work as well for classified Gov info but it still happens. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/insider/the-time-i-found-donald-trumps-tax-records-in-my-mailbox.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/insider/the-time-i-found-...