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.
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy