Protect your Freedom of Speech with Strong Antivirus Programs

Journalism has never been more powerful or accessible than it is in 2019. Bloggers with a voice and a keyboard can take to the Internet to report on their beliefs and experiences. Anyone with a smartphone can upload photos or videos instantly to an audience all over the world.

Amateur journalists gave the first video of the horrifying earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, the shocking attacks on America by Osama Bin-Laden in 2001, even the United States’ military raid that saw Bin-Laden killed years later.

Both amateur and professional journalists live in a lot more dangerous world than they did even 15 years ago. Bylines and names under broadcasters’ images on television don’t just identify who is speaking, they can put a target on the back of those media professionals.

Posting blogs, tweets, or any other sort of message that might inflame negative emotions or a bad response from a race, religion, political group, or even a lone extremist can put journalists in the crosshairs whether they know it or not.

Cybersecurity is a very serious deal for journalists. They should have any device they use for professional or personal reasons to be protected by strong antivirus software like Total AV to keep hackers and cybercriminals from easily breaking into their systems.

Why is cybersecurity important to journalists? Here are several reasons it is imperative.

Protecting sources:

Sources can be in a journalist’s phone or on their personal device with real or assumed names. Those sources must be protected for the journalist’s safety as well as the source, who often are speaking under the condition of anonymity.

Hiding from authorities:

When journalists are in countries where the laws are different than in their homeland, they must be extra cautious with how they behave and what they reveal. Having a phone that can resist attacks from hackers in the government’s employ can save sources and the journalist as well.

Protect pen names and pseudonyms:

Journalists will often write articles, columns, blogs, and post on social media under an assumed name in order to articulate opinions on controversial topics more freely. However, breaches in cybersecurity can result in those assumed identities being revealed and increase pressure on the journalist via online harassment or doxing. A fairly new term, doxing refers to the collection, sometimes illegally, of someone’s personal information followed by its public release, for the purpose of shaming them or outing their identity. Imagine a war zone journalist suddenly having the name of their hotel or the address they are staying at revealed to the opposition. Their life would be in jeopardy almost immediately.

Securing communication:

If a reporter fears bugging in the location they are staying, or some sort of eavesdropping or even online surveillance, a secure smartphone or other Internet-capable device can be a huge tool in their favor and allow them to do their job with many fewer fears. Freedom of the press does not exist in every country, but with proper cybersecurity, reporters, bloggers, and journalists can still do their jobs the way their code of conduct demands.