Prevent
Lock the doors first
Harden your phone, computer, accounts, Wi-Fi and website before anyone tries — with clear, guided checklists.
A pocket security lab for newsrooms under threat.
Fellows carry huge risk — targeted spyware, seizure, doxxing, break-in attempts — usually with no IT department and often no internet. SENTINEL puts a lab-grade defense kit in their pocket: it detects, protects, responds and analyzes, and it walks you through every step in plain language.
You are never handed a pile of tools. You tell it what's happening, and it does the rest — offline, on your own machine, with a human team quietly supporting you.
What it does
Four jobs, one stick
SENTINEL covers the whole attack surface of a small newsroom — before, during, and after an attack.
Detect
Find what's hiding
Scan your own phone and computer for spyware and intrusions — the same checks Citizen Lab and Amnesty's labs use.
Respond
Contain the damage
Account taken over? Device lost or seized? Step-by-step playbooks help you lock down and recover, in the right order.
Analyze
Inspect it safely
Got a suspicious file, email or link? Examine it on the stick without ever opening it on your real device.
How you use it
Just tell it what's happening
No menus of tools to learn. You pick your situation in your own words — SENTINEL knows which tools to run. The solid cards work today; the dashed ones are still being built.
"I think my phone is hacked"
Spyware check
"I think this computer is hacked"
Compromise check
"I got a suspicious file, email or link"
Safe inspection
"Someone's trying to get into my accounts"
Lock-down guide
"I lost a device — or it was seized"
Damage control
"I'm setting up a new device"
Planned
"I'm going somewhere risky"
Planned
"Check my newsroom's Wi-Fi & website"
Planned
Start to finish
Four steps, no expertise needed
Plug it in
Any computer — USB-A or USB-C. Nothing to install, no account, no internet.
Pick your situation
Choose the card that matches what's going on, in plain language.
Follow the steps
SENTINEL runs the right checks and explains each result as you go.
Answer & next move
You get a clear verdict and what to do. If it's serious, it seals the evidence for your support team.
Why you can trust it
Built to protect you, even from itself
Every design choice assumes the stick could be lost, stolen, or taken from you — and that you shouldn't have to be a security expert to stay safe.
Nothing ever leaves
100% offline. It never phones home. Your scans and your identity are never transmitted.
It only looks
Read-only by default. It observes and advises — it never changes or damages the device it checks.
Locked, end to end
Everything sensitive on the stick is encrypted. A lost stick reveals nothing.
Can't be forced open
Evidence is sealed to your support team's key. Even you can't unlock it — so no one can pressure you to.
You're never alone
A human team supervises. When something's serious, one tap packages it for an expert to review.
Replaceable, not precious
Lose one and you lose nothing important. Any stick can be re-built from a clean master.
Powered by 50+ trusted, open-source tools — the real ones the experts use.
The same instruments trusted by Citizen Lab and Amnesty's Security Lab, plus our own tools, carefully vetted and bundled to run entirely offline. You never see the complexity — SENTINEL drives them for you.
Spyware & forensics
Phone & computer triage
MVT · Volatility · Sleuth Kit · plaso · iLEAPP/ALEAPP
File & malware analysis
Inspect anything, safely
CyberChef · YARA · macro & PDF analysis
Secure comms
Talk without being watched
Signal · Tor · OnionShare · GnuPG
Encryption & secrets
Lock down your data
VeraCrypt · KeePassXC · age
Hardening
Close the gaps
Lynis · macOS baselines · CVE checks
Network
See who's on your line
Wireshark · Zeek · Kismet
Built to grow
It gets stronger over time
The kit updates through secure, offline "supply drops" — no internet connection required.
Coming
An offline AI assistant
A private helper that lives on the stick — explaining findings in plain words and guiding you through hard moments, with no cloud and no data ever leaving the device.
Now working
Clean-room boot mode
Start your computer straight from the stick into a trusted environment — so even a compromised machine can't lie to you during an investigation. Built and booting; being tested on real laptops before it reaches you.