Privacy in Action: Joseph Menn, Author and Investigative Reporter

Interview with author and journalists Joseph Menn, discussing Cult of the Dead Cow, privacy, and cybersecurity.

Investigative reporters don’t just break the news, they go digging for the truth.

Joseph Menn is a veteran investigative technology reporter for Reuters who has specialized in security and privacy issues there and during previous stints at the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times. His books include Fatal System Error, which first tied the Russian government to organized cybercrime, and the Cult of the Dead Cow, named one of the 10 best nonfiction works of the year by Hudson Booksellers. The Wall Street Journal said it was the five all-time cybersecurity books everyone should read, while the New York Times called in “an invaluable resource.” He tweets as @josephmenn.

Interview with Joseph Menn

Startpage: How did you become interested in the Cult of the Dead Cow?

Joseph Menn: After Fatal System Error paved the way for what has become a parade of books about how bad the outlook is for security and privacy, I wanted to be more constructive. I sought out a story to illustrated some of the things that have been most helpful and could be replicated by others. I knew some cDc members and fellow-travelers, and in talking it over with them and others I realized that they were critical to many of the most important developments of the past three decades, including the development of coordinated vulnerability disclosure, the shaming of big companies who left users unprotected, the rise of hacktivism, and the creation of the Tor browser.

Startpage: What should today’s newest cybersecurity professionals learn from them?

Joseph Menn: The cDc weren’t always moral paragons. They began as young teens who were interested in tech and were offbeat and entertaining. One of the most important things is that as the stakes rose with more people coming online, they leveled up morally. The second thing is that they kept applying critical thinking about how to make things better for the world. And the third thing is that they were willing to go way out from where they were comfortable to effect change: to go into business or into government, or to try to organize legions of volunteers. The last thing is that teams can do amazing things, especially if they have very different backgrounds or interests, when they are united by shared values and purpose.

Startpage: As a professional journalist for three decades, specializing in technology stories, what news stories have most helped raise privacy awareness?

Joseph Menn: By this point, Americans are numb to most breaches. But the stories that have moved the needle include those around Ed Snowden’s revelations, such as routine government access to calling records; the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook saga, which showed that personal data obtained under false pretenses was being monetized and used for hidden political purposes. And Apple’s standoff with the FBI, where it refused to write a program to unlock a dead terrorist’s phone.

Startpage: What piece of investigative journalism are you most proud of?

Joseph Menn: In 2015, I reported that Microsoft had determined that the Chinese military had used a security flaw to hijack email accounts belonging to dozens of minorities, human rights advocates, and foreign officials at home and abroad. But the company decided not to warn the account holders, which might have provoked the Chinese government. After I confronted Microsoft with my findings, it changed policy to warn people about state-backed hacking attempts, and has since alerted more than 20,000 users.

Startpage: What tools or practices do you use to protect your privacy?

Joseph Menn: I use a variety of end-to-end encrypted communications apps and privacy-protected search engines. But I prefer in person meetings and notes on paper.