CyAN Signs Protect.ngo / ICSC Call to Protect Civil Society Organisations

CyAN’s mission is to strengthen and protect global digital society and the online economy, and to work against the digital threats facing individuals, democracy and trade. 

Organisations that feed people, treat the sick, shelter the displaced, protect children, and hold power to account are part of that digital society.  Meanwhile, information threats don’t stop at borders, and don’t care if an organisation does beneficial work.  Nonprofits do not underinvest in security because they are careless, but because their budgets often do not permit them to do otherwise.  Good security is expensive, and donor funds used to buy firewalls or expertise does make for good photo ops. 

CyAN has always been a launchpad and a voice for cyber-related causes that would otherwise might have trouble being heard, including those ighting image-based sexual abuse and scams, strengthening the cyber workforce, scams and fraud, and advocating for privacy, strong encryption, and effective joint cyber-defence.  Strengthening the organisations that in turn strengthen civil society through these causes presents a conundrum; civil society cannot ever outbid banks for security talent, so expertise has to be shared rather than sold.  This sort of sharing is the most efficient way for a network of experienced practitioners to strengthen society as a whole, and those parts of it that cannot hire their way to safety and security.

What we have seen, repeatedly, is that civil society organisations benefit from the structures and experience that CyAN, our partners, and our members provide on a regular basis; these are not vague statements of goodwill, but concrete, actionable contributions, and we applaud Protect.ngo (formerly the CyberPeace Institute) and the International Civil Society Society Centre for its work in this area.

Read the full Protect.NGO / International Civil Society Centre open letter here.