Digital Security Specialist, The Intercept
New York, NY

Job Description

About The Intercept:

The Intercept is an award-winning news organization dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism. Its in-depth investigations and unflinching analysis focus on politics, war, surveillance, corruption, the environment, technology, criminal justice, the media, and more. The Intercept gives its journalists the editorial freedom and legal support they need to expose corruption and injustice wherever they find it.

The Position:

As a digital security specialist in First Look Media's New York City office, you'll work directly with The Intercept's investigative journalists and Field of Vision's filmmakers, helping tackle day-to-day threat modeling and operational security problems related to securing their computers and phones, communicating with sources, protecting document sets, and collaborating on projects securely.

Firmly rooted in the newsroom, you'll also help develop and maintain a tailored digital security training curriculum, and regularly conduct trainings. Because you'll be working face-to-face with reporters, you must have excellent communication skills and a love of spreading knowledge widely. Your job will involve researching ever-changing privacy and security technologies and making informed decisions about what to use and when - not just relying on guides that other people have written.

You should have a solid understanding of computer security for desktop and mobile, including an understanding of how vulnerabilities and exploits, malware, and spearphishing work. You should also have an understanding of end-to-end encryption, and who has access to what information when using third party services. You should be comfortable learning on the job, and not afraid to dive into technical areas that you know little about.

Responsibilities:

* Work one-on-one with journalists, editors, researchers, and fact checkers to solve digital security issues as they arise, and help them become confident in operational security skills themselves; this includes developing tailored per-project threat models, and helping to inform editorial decisions related to source protection and document handling.
* Help train new employees in digital security skills, conduct regular check-ins, and help implement best practices.
* Help journalists become confident in technical newsroom tasks such as redacting documents, and double-check their work.
* Help staff threat model and prepare for international travel.
* Develop curriculum for and maintain a digital security training program within The Intercept and across First Look Media.
* Work with the rest of the security team to design and deploy new privacy and security enhancing technologies.
* Keep up-to-date on emerging technologies and threats to civil society.

Background & Qualifications:

* Collaborative, professional, nimble, with flexible work style.
* Comfort working in a small, fast-paced digital newsroom with shifting needs and demands.
* Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
* Strong interest in the journalistic process and enthusiasm for The Intercept's mission.
* Extensive experience with operating systems, including macOS, iOS, and Linux.
* Proficient with PGP, as well as encrypted messaging apps.
* Experienced with Tor and VPNs, how they work, their pros and cons, and when to use which.

Additional Desired Skills:

* Experience working with live Linux distributions, virtual machines, disk encryption technologies.
* History of leading workshops or giving talks at cryptoparties and hacker conferences.
* Proficiency in programming.
* Ability to speak Portuguese, to be able to more easily assist journalists with The Intercept Brasil

This position is recognized as part of the Writer's Guild of America, East, Inc., "Union."

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer--people of color, people with disabilities, women, and LGBT candidates are strongly encouraged to apply; we are committed to a diverse workplace, and to supporting our staff with ongoing career development opportunities.