2014 has been a tumultuous year for personal security. Through the continuing revelations of NSA leaks, North Koreans shutting down Sony, and the big bad bug that made everyone’s Heart Bleed, the past twelve months have shown that the hairiest of hacks are almost always in the last place you’d think to look.

On one muggy morning in June of 2013, a journalist for the news organization The Guardian rolled out of her bed, and opened her laptop. On it was an email from an address she didn’t recognize, with a message from a man she’d never met