This piece is part of API’s Research Review series, which highlights academic research that could be relevant and useful to the news industry. We also hope that this series will spark ideas among academics with an interest in researching the news. Today’s journalists owe so much to modern technologies like social media, mobile apps, digital recording devices […]

“It’s not a bad time for journalists to be exercising a little extra caution,” Laura Hazard Owen writes. Owen offers three tips for things journalists can do right now for free to protect their data and sources at the border: Don’t know your social media passwords (you can use a password manager, have a friend […]

Researchers have called for years for news publishers to make the switch to HTTPS, a more secure, encrypted alternative to HTTP. While some smaller publishers have made the switch, it’s more complicated for a big publishers such as Wired with content going back decades. As Wired starts the switch, it’s trying to help other publishers […]

Before adopting a third-party tool, Melody Kramer writes that publishers should consider what kinds of information the tool would gather about its readers and what expectation of privacy a user of their website has. Kramer outlines a list of questions publishers should ask themselves before integrating a third-party tool or collecting information about their users […]

Some major news organizations including The New York Times, AOL and the BBC have said their websites were attacked by “ransomware” that attempted to install the malware on users’ computers. Southern California public radio station KPCC reports that while this form of malware isn’t new, the attacks are becoming more common and often target organizations […]

After reporting on the funeral of local crime boss Vittorio Casamonica in Rome, two Italian journalists have received death threats. Both journalists were approached by local residents who threatened them. The second attack involved a camera crew from a public TV station who were told they would be killed if they didn’t stop filming. The […]

Last week, three of the University of Michigan’s most popular Facebook pages were hacked: Michigan Football, Michigan Basketball, and Michigan Athletics. Through a phishing scheme on Facebook Messenger that came through an employee’s Facebook account, the hackers were able to access the pages. Nikki Sunstrum, University of Michigan’s director of social media, offers lessons for […]

New York magazine published a powerful cover story on Monday with testimonies from 35 women who said they were assaulted by Bill Cosby, but the magazine’s website was brought down hours later by a hacker who says he hates New York City. While the website was inaccessible, New York magazine made the story available on […]

On Tuesday morning, a story appearing to be published by the Bloomberg News website said that Twitter had received a takeover offer worth $31 billion. Twitter’s shares went up as much as 7 percent from their closing price on Monday, but Twitter users and analysts soon began poking holes in the fake story, such as […]

Some news organizations including The Washington Post are now using HTTPS to encrypt all or parts of their websites to make it more difficult for a third party to track or hijack information transmitted between the website and visitor. HTTPS also protects the content users see by keeping it safe from tampering. In an incentive […]