There is a gap in newsrooms. On one side, journalists and editors go about their work, writing and publishing stories. On the other, a security team protects the company's networks and infrastructure.
But today, there are more digital threats against journalists, their sources, and their employers than ever before. So the two sides need to meet in the middle in order to maintain the safety of all involved.
That's where Runa Sandvik at The New York Times, comes in."I end up being a bridge," Sandvik, who has the unique title of 'Director of Information Security for the Newsroom,' told Motherboard in a phone call.
Although Sandvik has been training journalists for years, this position at the Times was a whole new creation; she sits with reporters in the newsroom itself, able to assist with security issues."It's not a pure security role; it's not a pure support role, it's a jack-of-all trades type of role, because you end up wearing a whole load of hats," she said.Indeed, Sandvik's own history has jumped between journalism, security, and development. As a child growing up in Norway she wanted to be a lawyer, but got her first computer when she was 15 years old."Things changed from there," Sandvik said. She would download anything and everything, opening files to see what would happen."I got it infected pretty frequently," she added. In 2009, she contributed to the Tor Project, the nonprofit behind the Tor anonymity network, before working for a penetration testing and code audit company, and joining the Tor Project full time.Sandvik has produced her own security research too. In 2015, Sandvik and her husband hacked a so-called smart rifle, allowing them to change the weapon's target or remotely disable the gun."I got it infected pretty frequently."
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