You have evidence, and you can't trust anyone, what should you do?

[Janx]

A new season, a new problem.

Here's the deal: You have some evidence of wrongdoing. Evil deals with terrorists, corruption, stuff like that.

What can you do with the information, when you can't trust that law enforcement agencies have not been compromised.

It's not that every organization is crooked, merely that you have no clue if the person you are about to hand over the evidence to is crooked, or if they're being watched and the evidence will disappear.

I am inclined to think that you can't have too many copies of the information. Nor too many "if you don't hear from me" contigency plans. I would set up a schedule task on multiple secret servers to blast email that thing to every news station in the country (not just NBC.com, but each LOCAL news station), as well as every law enforcement agency, local and federal. When everybody knows everybody got a copy of it, it's a lot harder for the cockroaches to hide.

 

[delericho]

Join the bad guys, get as big a payoff as you can.

 

[Stumblewyk]

Run through a crowded bus/train/subway station with the evidence on a DVD. Grab the most action-star-looking guy I can find, press the data disc into his hand, and tell him, "Time is short. You hold the key to everything!", look around panic-stricken, and then run away from him as fast as I can. Now it's HIS problem.

 

[Umbran]

I would set up a schedule task on multiple secret servers to blast email that thing to every news station in the country (not just NBC.com, but each LOCAL news station), as well as every law enforcement agency, local and federal. When everybody knows everybody got a copy of it, it's a lot harder for the cockroaches to hide.

If you're going to blast it to so many, you no longer need to be secret yourself. No secret servers, no scheduled tasks. Do it from your home e-mail. Put your name and address on *everything*. Send both electronic and physical copies, by multiple carriers.

If you keep your involvement secret, and difficult to trace, then if you go missing nobody will notice the coincidence. If you make it as public as possible, then if you go missing, everyone will wonder why, and not let go so easily. If you want to shine a spotlight, make sure it hist you - if you're in the shadow, the cockroaches will run over you as they scurry from the light!

 

[Janx]

If you're going to blast it to so many, you no longer need to be secret yourself. No secret servers, no scheduled tasks. Do it from your home e-mail. Put your name and address on *everything*. Send both electronic and physical copies, by multiple carriers.

you make good points. My plan covered the "if I die or disappear..." scenario to act as a contingency plan. You don't want the bad guys to whack or torture you and easily be able to prevent your failsafe from firing. It's pretty easy to setup a watcher to look for a daily Tweet or facebook post, something that looks innocuous and is independent of any server you directly manage and are associated with.

However, if you go public ASAP, you'd definitely want your name plastered everywhere as the whistle blower, so when you vanish, the cops have a pretty good idea of where to start looking.

In fact, delayed, or immediate broadcast plans should ensure that it is obviously from you. I think both for your own protection, as well as to maintain the veracity of the document.

Computer files aren't magically tagged in a way that there is absolute proof of their authenticity. Certainly not in a way that it could be plausibly alleged that they were forged by hackers looking to start a scandal.

 

[Umbran]

Computer files aren't magically tagged in a way that there is absolute proof of their authenticity. Certainly not in a way that it could be plausibly alleged that they were forged by hackers looking to start a scandal.

That's why you send physical copies as well, that you can sign. If you're being really paranoid, you can get an ink pad and get your fingerprints on there as well, while you're at it. And get them notarized, too.

 

[fanboy2000]

First, if you're going to ask these question based on TV shows you watch, will you at least take requests? (Request: Fawlty Towers.)

If you're going to blast it to so many, you no longer need to be secret yourself.

This was going to be my point. Public broadcast of the evidence has the added benefit of notifying good cops who can do something, and motivating them to act.

The only problem is when leaking the information is itself a crime. This can happen in countries where free speech protections are low to non-existant, or in cases where the information is classified. In that case, you may want to leak the information from a location that's unlikely to extradite you.

Now, what do you do when there's a fire drill in a few minutes, but the burglar alarm goes off while trying to get the key to the fire alarm from the safe?

 

[Fast Learner]

Additionally, there are a lot of internet options for helping to make it much less likely that even powerful law enforcement wouldn't be able to wipe all traces if you went public: get it out onto as many bittorrent servers as possible, get it to the remaining Wikileaks folks, do what you can to get it to the Anonymous folks, etc. People who are accustomed to working around law enforcement attempts to shut net things down.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Contact my old friends in the FBI, CIA and NSA. It's their problem now, I got out of that business too long ago to go back.

 

[Umbran]

Contact my old friends in the FBI, CIA and NSA. It's their problem now, I got out of that business too long ago to go back.

That's what they all say. And then the unmarked helicopters show up, and things get interesting...