Whether you are a whistleblower wanting to provide information to a news agency, or a news agency wanting to be able to receive reports from confidential sources, it is important to understand how to securely and anonymously send and receive sensitive information. The Intercept, the Washington Post, and the Guardian each provide instructions on their official web-pages for individuals who wish to provide confidential tips to these news agencies. If you want to set up a way for sources to contact you anonymously and securely; reading the article "Opening Secure Channels for Confidential Tips" may provide you with some good ideas.
It’s not just news agencies, however, that may want to receive information from confidential sources. A law enforcement agency may want to receive tips about crime, and a security agency may want to receive suspicious activity reports. Having a way for sources to provide you with information anonymously and securely may result in you receiving information that you might not otherwise get if sources must fear for their safety, or risk exposure in the public eye. Of course, an anonymous report means that you have to work harder to validate the credibility and veracity of the information that you receive, but in many case the reward is worth the extra effort. It may also be that a source is willing to identify himself or herself, but wants to ensure the security of the information that he or she is providing. Secure communication tools such as GnuPG, Signal, and Secure Drop make this possible. If you work for the DOD, or other government agency, you might consider using Safe Access File Exchange as a way to securely send and receive information.
Dealing with confidential sources and maintaining secure communication is a skill that requires practice, and requires having the necessary protocols set up before you actually need them. So, if tomorrow someone wanted to contact you with time-sensitive, confidential, information would you have a way to receive it and protect your source?
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