Dr. Manny Ahmed, founder of blockchain firm OpenOrigins and whistleblower protection tool CoverDrop, points out the potential of mass decoy messaging in safeguarding the identities of whistleblowers. The two platforms work in unison to foster trustworthy communication, especially between news outlets and their audience.
In a dialogue with Cointelegraph, Dr. Ahmed explained the mechanism of CoverDrop. It revolves around generating vast quantities of decoy encrypted messages between a news site and its readers. This strategy creates an illusion where every reader appears to be a whistleblower, camouflaging the true whistleblowers within a digital fog of decoy messages.
Dr. Ahmed highlighted the daunting challenges whistleblowers currently grapple with in the digital surveillance era. He said, “Whistleblowers are in a challenging situation because they are among the few who have access to confidential information. Even using end-to-end encryption, their communication with a journalist is sufficient to single them out. The content of the message isn’t as significant as the one-on-one relationship.”
Moreover, Dr. Ahmed drew attention to the escalating threat to privacy and anonymity due to advancements in AI and data surveillance tools. This scenario necessitates stronger defenses against the evolving surveillance state.
According to him, mass data collection has been in play for over a decade. However, it was ineffective due to the absence of an efficient way to sift through the colossal amounts of data. He said, “Previously, thousands of analysts were required to target individuals. With AI, that’s no longer necessary.”
He warned about the rise of agentic AI, which allows intelligence agencies to assign an AI agent to each individual. This AI agent compiles a comprehensive profile of a person’s activity at a minimal computational cost, intensifying the threat. “The threat has escalated significantly. Therefore, the defense must also be ramped up,” concluded Dr. Ahmed.
