Cloudflare started Project Galileo in 2014 to provide a set of free security products to a range of groups on the Internet that are targeted by cyberattacks due to their critical work. These groups include human rights defenders, independent media and journalists, and organizations that work in strengthening democracy. Seven year later, Project Galileo currently protects more than 1,500 organizations in 111 countries.
A majority of the organizations protected under Project Galileo work in independent media and journalism, and are targeted both physically and online as a result of reporting critical events around the world. From July 2020 to March 2021, there were more than seven billion cyberattacks against Project Galileo journalism and media sites, equating to over 30 million attacks per day against this group. We reported many of these findings for the 7th anniversary of Project Galileo’s Radar Dashboard.
Global Cyber Alliance
We have reported on the cyber threats to independent journalists and media organizations in the past, with the goal of creating best practices on how to protect these groups online. As we shared these insights, we started to collaborate with organizations that provide support and resources to improve journalists’ cybersecurity capabilities and respond to threats. One of these organizations that we were excited to engage with was the Global Cyber Alliance.
The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) is an international, cross-sector nonprofit dedicated to confronting systemic cyber risks and improving our connected world. GCA develops free, easy and accessible tools to a range of stakeholders on the Internet including small businesses, journalists and, election officials around the world. Each toolkit is curated with tools and guidance on managing passwords, encrypting your data, backing up data, secure email, and browsing, anti-virus, DNS Security and more.
“As journalism increasingly, if not exclusively, relies on connected resources to investigate and report news, these capabilities offer tremendous benefit, particularly as newsrooms face budget constraints. At the same time, connected resources if not secured properly can unknowingly risk journalists, their sources, and the developments they cover,” said Megan Stifel, Global Policy Officer and Capacity & Resilience Program Director at the Global Cyber Alliance. “Resources such as Project Galileo play an important role in helping journalists protect themselves and their work, enabling them to report the news on their terms. GCA is pleased to add this resource to our free Cybersecurity Toolkit for Journalists, which is one of three toolkits available through our Capacity & Resilience Program.”
Project Galileo and the GCA Cybersecurity Toolkit for Journalists
Cloudflare is thrilled to have Project Galileo included in the GCA Cybersecurity Toolkit for Journalists to provide the tools and resources for journalists in order to be safer online. The free tools in the toolkit include:
- DNS Security with WARP: Cloudflare VPN (WARP) on devices, or their router, to Cloudflare’s DNS Resolver (1.1.1.2) With 1.1.1.2 it automatically blocks known malware before your browser has a chance to load it.
- End-to-End Encryption with Cloudflare SSL: Trust is essential for journalists and their public facing websites as they are a source of truth to their audience. With Cloudflare SSL, they can ensure that information is private and secure for visitors who engage with these websites. SSL also stops certain kinds of cyberattacks as it authenticates web servers, which is important because attackers will often try to set up fake websites to trick users and steal data.
- Cloudflare for Teams products Access & Gateway: To assist media organizations, Cloudflare for Team’s products Access & Gateway makes remote works safer for teams around the world with protecting internal applications and DNS filtering to ensure that journalists keep their sensitive information secure and do not fall victim to a cyberattack. Read more on how a local news outlet in New Jersey uses Gateway to filter and block malicious attacks and phishing attempts.
We are excited to be working with the Global Cyber Alliance and look forward to further collaboration on guidance, tools, and resources to improve security for individuals and organizations.