Nothing Is Secure

The home of Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post reporter, was searched by the FBI. Her devices were seized. Runa Sandvik, whose life’s work is protecting journalists’ digital security, assesses the damage—and what news organizations need to know.

On Christmas Eve, the Washington Post published a story by Hannah Natanson, a reporter who works as part of a team covering the ways Donald Trump is upending the federal workforce. “I am The Post’s ‘federal government whisperer.’ It’s been brutal,” the headline went. She described having been an education reporter who wandered over to Reddit, where she put out a call for “anyone willing to chat.” She provided her contact information on Signal, an encrypted app that Post reporters are encouraged to use. “The next day, I woke at sunrise to dozens of messages—the ruling pattern of my mornings ever since,” she wrote. Before long, “I would gain a new beat, a new editor and 1,169 contacts on Signal, all current or former federal employees who decided to trust me with their stories.” On Wednesday morning, the FBI searched her home and seized her phone, a Garmin watch, and two laptops—one of them issued by the Post.