What is the Security Project?

Tactical Tech's Security Project brings tools and training to human rights defenders and independent journalists, raising their awareness of and skills for coping with the pitfalls that come with handling sensitive information through digital technology.

The project broadens the users' knowledge about digital insecurities and equips them with everything they need to secure their computer activities, online privacy and information exchange.

What does the security project do?

This project aims to increase awareness about security vulnerabilities and provide solutions by:

• Reviewing and selecting software tools.
• Creating multi-lingual how-to guides and manuals.
• Providing consultancy.
• Conducting training.

These activities are making a profound contribution to the efficiency and safety of human rights defenders and journalists all over the world.

What is the need?

Digital information and communications have provided significant new opportunities and techniques for human rights defenders, advocates and independent journalists. But they have also created new vulnerabilities and risks that they are not always well equipped to deal with.

These vulnerabilities fall into five main areas of concern:

• Security of storing information and reducing the risk of unauthorised access to this data.
• Confidentiality of their communications by email, voice over IP or mobile phone.
• Anonymity in creating and publishing information on the internet, such as blogs.
• Protection from loss of data and ensuring they can continue to operate in the event of break-ins, confiscation, theft, computer crash or virus.
• Accessing websites and performing searches on the internet without censorship.

These problems can make the jobs of human rights defenders and journalists extremely difficult – and put them in real danger when those they are advocating against take advantage of their vulnerabilities.

These are precisely the areas addressed by Tactical Tech's Security Project.

What does the project offer?

The key element in Tactical Tech's Security Project has been the Security edition of the NGO-in-a-box project, developed in partnership with Front Line.

Read more about the digital security toolkit, or go straight to the toolkit; the security edition of NGO-in-a-box.

Along with an editorial team made up of Human Rights, Media and Security experts from across the world, we are working on a second version of the security toolkit. This new version will offer;

• Redesigned, better targeted format and contents, offering a more accessible, intuitive and comprehensive experience to the non-technical user.
• A fine-tuning of the existing tools, resources and training materials included in the toolkit.
• A complementary guide to help users make judgements themselves on which tools to use.
• Guides and training materials in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.

This new toolkit will form the bases of a series of activities including:

• Initiating a world-wide network of digital security trainers to lead workshops in activists' regions and languages – helping them implement the toolkit more effectively and stimulate its integration into local NGO circles even further.
• Publishing a training curriculum to be used by anyone wishing to do their own toolkit training – released in all five languages and accompanying each NGO-in-a-box.
• Expanding the outreach of the toolkit through collaborating with major international NGOs and foundations working in the sector, seeking partnerships with publishers and experimenting with print-on-demand services.

With these new developments, we fully expect the second phase of the Security Project to continue to provide tangible benefits and much-needed support for human rights defenders, advocates and independent journalists working in some of the world's most difficult situations.

As this knowledge spreads all over the world and local NGOs gain the knowledge and expertise needed in the digital age, we hope to further empower rights defenders and those they work to protect. Tactical Tech's Security Project provides necessary solutions in an age where digital communications and information are becoming an integral part of human rights campaigning.