Prepared Press — Founding Practice
Security and privacy engineering for the modern press.
For independent journalists and small newsrooms operating without dedicated security staff.
Public Record
The threat landscape
This is not hypothetical, and it is not limited to authoritarian states.
- 2013
Associated Press
The U.S. Department of Justice secretly seized records for more than 20 phone lines used by AP reporters and editors.
- 2013
James Rosen, Fox News
The DOJ obtained a warrant for a reporter's personal email account, naming him a possible co-conspirator under the Espionage Act in a leak investigation.
- 2013
Glenn Greenwald
His partner, David Miranda, was detained for nine hours at Heathrow under UK terrorism powers; his devices were seized.
- 2006–2012
Laura Poitras
The filmmaker behind Citizenfour was detained and searched at the U.S. border on dozens of occasions.
- 2022–present
Iran
Amid nationwide internet shutdowns, authorities have hunted down and confiscated smuggled Starlink terminals used to reach the outside world.
Assessment
The gap
Small newsrooms typically have generic IT support — someone who can reset passwords and manage the file server. That is not a threat model. Adversary-grade surveillance requires adversary-grade operational security, and almost no independent outlet has it in-house.
Areas of Practice
Capabilities
What the practice covers. Presented as areas of expertise, not a record of past engagements.
- Threat modeling
- For newsrooms, beats, and individual investigations.
- Hardened workstations
- Qubes OS and compartmentalized workflows.
- Anonymity & circumvention
- Tor Browser, bridges, and pluggable transports.
- Mobile hardening
- GrapheneOS deployments.
- Secure communications
- End-to-end encrypted email such as Proton Mail; Signal.
- Border-crossing protocols
- For devices and data.
- Source protection
- Intake, storage, and contact hygiene.
- Operating under shutdown
- National-scale internet shutdowns and censorship.
Status
Not accepting new clients
Prepared Press is not taking on new clients at this time. Leave an email address to be notified when availability opens.
One email when availability opens. Nothing else.