Hypothetically, if you are a witness or whistleblower who's adversary was a very big corporation (such as boeing), what measures could you take to prevent yourself from being "suicided"?
Take the advice offered by journalists on how to contact them privately and avoid getting caught. I.e. secure and protect evidence without raising suspicion. Contact a reputable journalist via some secure means of communication. Let them take over and keep silent. Don't brag or something.
Most good newspapers offer something like PGP encrypted mail, SecureDrop over TOR and more to talk to them.
This children is why the need for private communication isn’t something you can laugh away by claiming you have nothing to hide.
Encrypt email with anyone who publishes a key. If "bad" emails are the only ones you encrypt, then that metadata can be used to raise suspicion of you and to trace your contacts.
Edward Snowden is a prime example of how to handle it.
Only communicated via encrypted channels.
When revealing himself and his leak, he had already left his home country. He was trying to make it to South America when the US canceled his passport. US went so far as to bring down a sovereign nations Presidential plane to search it for Snowden.
I'm sure he has still had to worry about his personal safety after getting stuck in a country he wasn't planning on getting stuck in.
But the reality is you have to meticulously plan and basically abandon your entire life and move somewhere they cannot touch you. When it comes to US companies, you generally will have to do like Snowden and avoid US-allied nations.
See also: Steven Donziger and Chevron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Donziger
Donziger was placed under house arrest in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of criminal contempt of court, which arose during his appeal against Kaplan's RICO decision, when he refused to turn over electronic devices he owned to Chevron's forensics experts. In July 2021, US District Judge Loretta Preska found him guilty, and Donziger was sentenced to 6 months in jail in October 2021. While Donziger was under house arrest in 2020, twenty-nine Nobel laureates described the actions taken by Chevron against him as "judicial harassment." Human rights campaigners called Chevron's actions an example of a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP). In April 2021, six members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus demanded that the Department of Justice review Donziger's case. In September 2021, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the pre-trial detention imposed on Donziger was illegal and called for his release. Having spent 45 days in prison and a combined total of 993 days under house arrest, Donziger was released on April 25, 2022.
US corporations can and will bring the weight of the US "justice" system on whistleblowers. The US is not unique in this regard. Whatever giant company you're whistleblowing against, you better GTFO of the country they are based in.
Yeah so many people talk about Snowden going to Russia and ignore the fact that he was only in Russia transferring to another plane when his passport was cancelled stranding him there. The choice was basically stay there, or go back to the US, and that wasn't really an option.
Why the US would want to leave him in Russia as a potential asset for Russian intelligence to break instead of letting him get to a different country that isn't such a direct threat though is a really good question.
Those Boeing Whistleblowers should've left the country 😓
Preferably, not via Boeing aircraft.
The United States - Freedom of Corruption, Indignity and Distrust for All!
Snowden was an IT expert, it certainly helps. His book is a great read.
US went so far as to bring down a sovereign nations Presidential plane to search it for Snowden.
I wonder if Morales got any concessions for agreeing to land his plane and allow a search.
He was a democratically elected leader from the left in Latin America. Not being murdered in his sleep could be considered special concessions.
While it won't help you getting suicided, setting up a deadman's switch on the cloud that will release your testimony is definitely worth doing.
Additionally, give a copy of all the documents to your lawyer to release in the case of your death. Multiple Deadman switches are better than one, especially one that's controlled by a person and not just hoping your cloud service doesn't go down after you're dead.
Absolutely. I was gonna edit my comment to include that but you beat me to the punch.
With whistleblower information, why hold it back in the first place? Wouldn't it be better to release it immediately if they might kill you either way?
IIRC the problem there is that it potentially makes you liable to be sued by the company for disclosing negative/private information. But they can't exactly hold you liable if you're dead, so if you're dead you may as well speak what you know from beyond the grave.
Collect all your evidence into one large archive, upload it somewhere and make it known that if you die of anything other than natural causes, that information will become available to EVERYONE.
Read up on how "dead man's switches" work. If you don't send a signal online, log into a particular account on a regular basis, that sends the release signal.
Related:
But why bother holding back in the first place. If this is whistleblower information like Boeing safety issues, there's no point in setting up a dead man's switch. You want to release it all immediately in the first place, because keeping it to yourself undermines the point of blowing the whistle
Might only be the whistleblowing stuff. Might not. Guess you'll have to kill me to find out.
Then the incentive becomes to stop a whistleblower faster if they had a dead-man cache than if they released it all at once. There's no guarantee that the whistleblower is being honest or is capable enough to undertake something like that but there's always a risk that the whistleblower may disclose that information anyway. Better to stop the whistleblower by arresting them first and deal with the potential fallout than negotiate. Now the whistleblower's reputation is ruined, if they're behind bars they're effectively silenced, and they're as good as dead to society without all that messy work trying to fake a suicide.
Dead Man's Switch. Something something Notary Public
Whatever Snowden did
And you'll need to publicly advertise that you are using one for it to be effective.
Amongst everything others have said, if you get sucked into an interview or press conference, directly and firmly state that, for the record, you are not suicidal and that if you should die, it was absolutely not suicide. You believe that you've become a target and fear for your safety and life.
It doesn't matter if you believe yourself to be a target in the privacy of your head. Always say that you are early, often, loudly, and to anyone who will listen.
Despite all precautions, if you are one of the few persons whose circumstances could allow the leak, then they'll narrow it down to you. Especially if you were the reluctant one, the one that raised ethical issues etc...
Was just looking at something like how to execute on that this morning as my morning coffee dive down an internet rabbit hole.
There’s this guy named Michael Bazzell who used to make a podcast about stuff like this, and he also wrote a book called Extreme Privacy that I thumbed through this morning. He talks about where to go to get a ghost address, how to buy and set up a cell phone to be virtually anonymous, how to buy a house anonymously or how to re-title your car to a trust or LLC, and pretty much everything in between. Even talks about what information to not divulge when you go to the ER and details what to consider you put on your kids birth certificate.
So if anyone is paranoid enough to know how to avoid getting suicided, I’m going to bet on this guy’s advice
Do you know where to find the podcast? Its seems like they dissappeared from the internet 🤨
He’s THAT good
His podcast ended and he's worked to remove them where possible. While I don't know if there are archives of it I can vouch for the quality of his books. They receive updates throughout the year and are step by step guides on how to lock down certain aspects of your life. Its worth purchasing.
Man, lots of crazy, unrealistic advice here.
One person literally said to live in a motel. No, do not live alone.
The answer is pretty simple, live in a community house with like 8 other people.
8 potential aids for your murder.
They just have to say: "I give you 1.000.000 bucks if you give this food to that person, it will look like a bad flu and you'll get the money". If one rejects the offer there's 7 more to do so.
Definitely a dead man switch, and several letters from me and my psychiatrist specifying that I'm not suicidal.
"Circumstances change"
Don't leak. Spread seldom rumours online about the company with plausible deniability. Find a crazy-er person and/or group. Continue spreading dots. Spread info to Youtubers. Others with a platform. Use a VM, a password manager inside the VM. After 12 months, delete all your credentials and the VM. The system can not protect you. Corps rule democracy. Don't trust the system. Spread the info until it reaches critical mass or the faith in the system collapses. Your life is worth more than some righteous leak. See the Pentagon Papers life. He lived a very humble life afterwards.
NOTE: method untested and invented just now.
wouldnt it just drown with all the insane crap the crackpots spew anyway and become tainted by association with them? But yeah, you definitely shouldnt use your own name and should spread the leak all over.
Do
Do Not
And most of all don't listen to the billy badasses in here. If a multi billion dollar corporation wants you dead and is willing to break the law they can afford a lot of very nasty people. You aren't getting the tactical training to stand against them in that short amount of time, that takes years and dedication and even then you'll be learning how to run away in a deadly manner. Your best defense is to be ghost except when you show up for court dates and depositions. That's what the Secret Service Witness Protection Program does and it works if you have discipline.
Apparently you just have to kill a ceo in public and dozens of cops will come make sure you don't get suicided before the state does it.
Psych eval, video uploads, video camera on me at all times with an atty that has access to the recordings.
There are apps that will upload video to the web live while recording in the background. Don't have any interactions with random strangers that you aren't recording. Have security cams at your house recording 24/7 saving remotely to a secure server.
It’s pretty sad that not only are we at a point where this is a very legitimate question, but that the answer is something that should be taught in schools.
School aint teaching this shit. That would imply that you should be a whistleblower or be a witness to wrongdoings. No way governments would let this be taught.
This is what parents should be teaching at home.
If you have a union...
Call a lawyer and give a deposition before they can do anything. Collect as much information as possible. Dump all of the cars and electronics that I own, ship my active phone to a different state. Stop using credit cards. Strap up. Send my family to day with various people who I know who are Leo or retired Leo or retired military. Always wear a hat, mask, etc. have a different lawyer set up an LLC without my name attached and use that to register a van to stay in with a business name on the side. Avoid big retailers who use facial recognition. Park the van near my old bosses houses during the day since it looks like a plumbing truck or whatever and sleep during the day since they think I would be hiding somewhere far away. If they see me then they would be shitting themselves. Go to their house when only their spouse or kids are home pretending to be a service person and get pictures inside their house. Send them photos of them and their family leaving and coming home at their school, their wifi ssid, inside of their house, house plans from the county, etc. from a different zip code far away by using a mail forwarding service so they think I've skipped town but I'm actually right there.
Human beings are fragile creatures. Big corps generally don't need to make the big effort of a murder and a cover-up when they can almost completely legally harass people into taking their own lives.
To that end? Get a good therapist and a psych. Preferably not on workplace insurance, if such a thing is feasible for the situation.
Only use encrypted communication, use a phone running GraphineOS, and your computer should be running a secure OS like QubesOS (in addition to Tor and/or MullvadVPN). Basically you need maximum security and maximum privacy, a Thinkpad running Libreboot is the best laptop and a Pixel will be the best phone.
Good suggestions, however, I don't think even pigeon carriers will stop yourself from mysteriously dying of suicide with 2 shots in the back of your head.
Of course, at the same time its not harmful to do as much as you can. However, as the saying goes "the game was rigged from the start"
how'd you find the guy?
Easy. We had a list of the fifteen or so guys that did that specific part of the job, we got their IP addresses, watched them for a while, and as it turns out, two of them regularly use a VPN and send all of their traffic to Canada.
How long do you think it would take to figure out whether or not which one of these boys are harmless software pirates, or their man?
People do all of the work in the world without knowing that your preparation will blow your cover.
Have you ever visited TailsOS's website off of a VPN? Could the Feds find out? Do you think the other guys have the same level of deniability?
That trail is not washing off. You even knowing or having a history of using a Linux iso is suspicion enough if the rest of the suspects are all boring chuds.
You need at least 7 proxies.
Is this some leet hacker fantasy where you are persecuted for using Linux? Lemmy you never disappoint lmao
Tails on a usb on a personal device only. Never do anything in person. Redact all personal information for all people yourself included. Use a pdf to image embedded pdf conversion tool to hide all possible pdf metadata. Remove all image metadata. Never tell anyone any traceable information this includes names, locations, times, contacts, you voice, anything that can in any way be identified as unique to u.
Do not raise suspicion quit within a short period of disclosure of information, speak out about issurs, etc. Use simplex chat or pgp encrypted email with a new randomly generated email address not linked to personal info (phone number, existing email etc). Do this all via tor on ur tails install.
Data exfiltration is difficult and can be linked/traced depending on threat model (boing will have extreme capacity and can be considered as dangerouse as a government actor). If u can take the device home and their is no device opened detection in BIOS then extract drive plug into personal device thats booted with tails and copy files from drive to tails (avoids any logging of files being copied or what fikes).
If files are on a secure server then exfil will be traceable. U can avoid this by taking pictures of screen with an oldschoop dslr (be carfull of information leakage (the monitor reflections etc).
If u are to testify and therefore need to disclose your real identity then u could theoreticly livestream ur entire life untill the point of testifying at which point u state clearly for the record u are not suicidal that u fear for you life and hope to hell thwy dont suicide u out of spite. Also if ur in the states carry a firearm and learn how to use it effectively.
Also deadmans switch which publicly dumps info. Files, audio/video from ur phone streamed to a remote server (in an internal durastinction they cant get to easily or quickly)
Idk tho just some thoughts
None. If you've ever worked at Boeing, you know this is not something they are capable of doing (honestly it is a shock they are in business at all).
All it takes is money to hire someone who is capable.
Their margins are negative (like 45%negative) in 2 of 3 business units. Business skills like those suggest the leadership isn't even smart enough to think of suiciding anyone, which aligns with my personal experience there.
I wonder if giving the information to the coporations competitor (as anonymously as possible of course) would do anything good? Try to turn the corps against eachother. At least you would know if they are secretly in league if the competitor doesnt expose them.
Also, i think anyone who is in position to do something like this should try to find more like minded people and continue as a group. Even then its dangerous but much less so than alone since there are more people to help. You wouldnt resist enemy occupation alone and expect to live long either.
This likely wouldnt work because that corporation could get in trouble for corporate espianoge. Some guy reportedly stole the recipe for cococola and tried to sell it to pepsi and they ratted him out
The wealthy actually have class solidarity
there exists a dark package infrastructure. usually used for stealing money from grannies but does drug drops and others. get in contact with them on a burner. send them the package with fee and they will deliver it anywhere you need it.
make sure you find a scapegoat within your company that knows what's going on but doesn't know you know. make them the whistleblower.
sit back and enjoy the shitshow as the trust breaks down and the company goes under.
The trick is to suicide yourself before they do it
Lmfao. That's like cops saying: "Wait, you can't kill your self!" shoot you to death "There, we fixed it!"
No busy roads, no flights with very few onboard, no views from balconies or other such places like large hotel windows. Cook everything yourself and you'll be alright!
who's
Who is?
That's probably the CIA poison affecting my ability to typ...
*whose adversary
I can't believe no one has said to keep and train with a gun. The best way to live is to kill your killer. Secure channels and home security cameras won't do shit if you don't have a good way to physically defend yourself.
This isn't the movies. They aren't sending one person you can get into a fight with. They'll just shoot you and ransack your house to make it look like you died in a robbery gone wrong. Just don't be there.
You are not John Wick.
The other guy coming for you IS John Wick.
You don't become a whistleblower.