Defending democracy defenders: Cybersecurity for civic tech projects

Across the world, websites and apps that promote democratic transparency and citizen participation are experiencing more sophisticated cyber attacks.

Come along to this TICTeC gathering to hear the latest techniques to help civic and pro-democracy tech projects protect their services, data and users.

We’ll cover specific internet freedom tools, how they’re being tested and integrated amongst pro-democracy actors globally, as well as the challenges of sustaining protection.

We'll hear from the following speakers, and there’ll be time for Q&A/discussion as well:

• Patricia Musomba, The Engine Room. Patricia is passionate about empowering at-risk communities to enhance their digital resilience through capacity building and tailored support. Patricia will talk about The Engine Room's Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT), which is designed to measure the maturity, resiliency, and strength of an organisation’s cybersecurity efforts.
• Hui Hui Ooi, Advisor, Technology & Democracy at the International Republican Institute (IRI). Hui Hui will share lessons from IRI's internet freedom user testing programme and how they could be integrated into the civic tech community. She'll also emphasise the importance of internet freedom tool developers working hand in hand with users at risk to conduct tool testing to ensure tool adoption and improve trust.
• Jocelyn Woolbright, Program Manager at Cloudfare Impact, and part of Cloudfare's Project Galileo team. Since 2014, Project Galileo has been providing free cybersecurity to more than 3,000 at-risk websites from around the world, protecting them against attacks such as DDoS, web exploits, phishing, and automated bot traffic. Jocelyn will discuss the full range of support provided and explain exactly how civic tech organisations can get involved and apply for this critical protection.

Image by Buffik from Pixabay