The stakes have never been higher: Security breaches routinely make front-page news, and digital security has become a formidable challenge for companies, consumers, politicians, and everyone in between. So far, journalists don’t seem to have been publicly compromised too often. But in 2018, that may change. Stories and confidential sources may be leaked after journalistic institutions are breached. Journalists would be embarrassed, sources would be more cautious, and doing good work would get harder.
All this will become a significant digital security challenge for journalists. To tell stories, they will need to understand the digital security dynamics of the subjects they write about. To preserve their own security, they will need to implement hardened digital security tools and practices in their own work. Digital security will become a core part of the job.
The good news is that digital security has never been easier. For example, hardware security keys provide excellent protection for many common accounts including Google, Facebook, Dropbox, and GitHub. A number of different vendors sell security keys; most cost a few dollars and can be set up in a matter of minutes. Server security has also improved, with a number of cloud providers offering hardened security services.
In 2018, journalists will also think more deeply about the nature of digital security and how digital attackers view the world. Some journalists will emerge as unexpected global experts on practical digital security, rivaling the gurus of the software development community.
By building expertise on digital security, journalists will begin to inform the understanding and decision-making of universities, enterprises, nonprofits, governments, and beyond. Journalists have a unique ability to share their knowledge with the world. When it comes to digital security, that new reservoir of knowledge will change everything.
Justin Kosslyn is the lead product manager of Jigsaw at Google.
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity