Tool for journalists: Digital Help Desk, for training reporters in digital security

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What is it? A learning hub created by Reporters Without Borders to inform and educate journalists about digital security.

Cost: Free

How is it of use to journalists?

Last week (17 July 2019), international non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders launched the digital help desk, with funding from the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises.

It is a go-to resource for tips, tests and guides on digital security, with the aim of helping journalists learn new techniques to safeguard themselves against potential cyberattacks.

It is accessible both on the web and the dark web (through the Tor browser), where the homepage will offer for a variety of learning resources on the tabs and sections laid out.

Training

Here you can test yourself with a number of quizzes on encryption, account security and anonymisation to see if your knowledge is up to scratch or in need of work.

You can use the threat model to get a handle of what level of attacks you are individually susceptible to, and therefore, what defences you may need to consider in a particular area, such as personal identity or communications.

There are also thorough video primers, like the one below, which explores the ins and out of password security for example, and how cyberattackers would try to hack your account.

Digital security guides

These are in-depth dives into the important areas of the digital security, including deliberate disinformation, which will be broken down into the different types that exist, how to assess fake news and potential counter-strategies.

With eight other areas to explore (at the time of writing), from legal facts and online harassment, journalists have a thorough digital security walk-through at their disposal here.

Dangerous errors

There are, however, a lot of myths around digital security, which is why Reporters Without Borders offers some FAQs too that you might be itching to ask about.

Some of these falsehoods are in fact dangerous misconceptions for journalists, as it explains for example, that a VPN does not make you invisible as many tend to think. Check it out, and see what you might learn. You might find you need to revisit the training section.

Want to learn some mobile journalism tips, tricks and techniques? Join our course with Caroline Scott to learn how to produce and distribute content from the palm of your hand.

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