African journalists trained in how to communicate securely online
GRAHAMSTOWN, South Africa -- Online security and privacy should be
of concern to anyone who uses the internet. As media workers and human
rights organisations around the world make increasing use of online
technologies, there is a corresponding increase in the need for skills,
knowledge, and tools to ensure that the use of technology is both
effective *and secure*. This need is especially acute in the case of
groups operating under repressive political conditions or in situations
of conflict, where the challenge is to gather, protect and disseminate
information effectively in a way which minimises risk to activists.
With this background in mind APC offered a three-day workshop on
"Secure Computing and Online Communications" during the Highway Africa
conference in September in Grahamstown, South Africa. Highway Africa is
the world's largest conference for African journalists and was attended
by more than 350 journalists and media folk.
The workshop was intended as entry-level training primarily aimed
at end users, but also accommodated people who were thinking about
security in their organisations. During these three days participants
with diverse backgrounds from media, non-governmental, academic, and
private sectors representing mainly Southern African countries gained
individual and organisational capacity in the area of information
security.
"My first message to participants is 'be aware not paranoid'.
Nowadays information security has been given more and more media
attention world widely, but terms like trojans, spyware, or encryption
usually intimidate normal computer users," explained Toni Eliasz,
coordinator of the workshop and executive director of South African
‘social techies’ Ungana-Afrika. "There's no need to be paranoid. With a
basic understanding and skills most of the challenges of keeping your
computer and your information safe can be tackled efficiently."
The workshop was divided into three afternoons. The first two
provided an introduction to secure online communications and an
overview of viruses and malware, privacy, software vulnerabilities,
access control, backing-up information, and planning for secure
computing.
The last afternoon covered high-risk contexts and focused on
interception legislation, encryption and digital signatures, and the
Martus secure reporting tool.
Martus is an open source software whose name means “witness” in
Greek. It enables human rights organisations to safely store their data
in a secure, remote server, without the fear of falling prey to hackers
and those who might want to spy on and/or sabotage their work. Using
Martus, information can be shared and transmitted with greater
security. Bobby Soriano, a technical specialist from the Philippines,
gave participants a hands-on demonstration of the software and handed
out copies on CD-rom.
The workshop is part of a two-phase initiative of the APC to
address these needs piloting in the Southern African context. Currently
as part of Phase 1, APC is developing a bank of reusable training
materials for use by participants and other trainers on “Secure Online
Communications (SOC) for civil society organisations in situations of
repression and conflict” and which will be available online in the
coming months.
APC is also laying the foundation for ongoing SOC-related training
and support through needs analysis and the training of potential
trainers/e-riders. APC thanks OSISA for their support of Phase 1.
Phase 2 will consist of a broader initiative to build the capacity
of existing trusted ICT trainers and support providers to be able to
train and support CSOs in communicating securely online throughout
2005.
"Secure Computing and Online Communications"-workshop presentations and exercises: Coming soon
More about APC training: Write to
training@apc.org
|
