Worst-of Cybersecurity Reporting 2019

In this session, two tech writers share the worst tech reporting of 2019 and wildly speculate on what went wrong before these articles went to print. Aside from an excessive use of the word cyber, we’ll also talk about what journalists should do when vetting their sources and fact-checking their scoop to make sure it matches reality.

Yael Grauer and David Huerta

Yael Grauer is an investigative tech reporter covering online privacy and security, digital freedom and mass surveillance. She’s written for Ars Technica, The Intercept, WIRED, Motherboard, Slate, Wirecutter, OneZero and other publications. She’s co-organized events and spoken on panels about digital security, source protection, ethics, and more. She holds a Master of Mass Communication degree from ASU, which was an interesting way to kill time between DEF CONs.

David Huerta is a Digital Security Trainer at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, where he’s working on methods to train journalists to take advantage of privacy-enhancing technology to empower a free press. He’s co-organized hundreds of trainings across the US, including one at the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of Laura Poitras’s Astro Noise exhibition in 2016. He’s also spoken on the subject of usable privacy technology at DEF CON, Radical Networks, Rightscon and random cocktail bars.