The response from US and British authorities to the Guardian's publication of the Edward Snowden files has taught all journalists to be "paranoid" about their online security, Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger has said.
Interviewed by the New York Times magazine in the week that the Guardian announced changes to its US operation, Rusbridger said the paper had taken "precautions" and assumed that people were trying to monitor what it was doing.
He said:
Odd things have happened, but the trouble is, you sound paranoid if you talk about them.We have assumed that a number of people might be trying to monitor what we’ve been doing, so we’ve done our best to take precautions.One thing that Snowden has taught us journalists is that it’s essential to be paranoid.
Last month, Guardian reporter Luke Harding claimed paragraphs from the book he was writing about the Snowden files "began to self-delete" before his eyes.
In the article, he outlined some of the steps he took to try to protect his work:
"I worked offline. I stored each draft chapter in a TrueCrypt folder, a virtual encrypted disk accessible only via a long, complicated password.
"When I conducted interviews I left my mobile behind."
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