Digital Safety

39 results arranged by date

Artwork: Jack Forbes

Psychological safety: Online harassment and how to protect your mental health

Journalists are frequently at risk of being harassed online in an attempt by hostile actors to intimidate or force them into silence. The harassment, most commonly directed at female journalists, often includes threats of violence against the journalist and their family and friends.

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A photographer sets a remote camera before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's appearance at a joint hearing on Capitol Hill in April 2018. Online harassment is perceived as the biggest threat for journalists in the U.S. and Canada, CPJ's safety survey found. (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

Why newsrooms need a solution to end online harassment of reporters

Stef Schrader was on vacation in Germany last year when spam messages started to flood her inbox. Seeing random emails from Macy’s—and job alerts for the position of “Chief Idiot”—she realized someone had signed her work email up to dozens of email lists.

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Reporters work during a panel for a television series in Beverly Hills, California, in August 2016. Female and gender non-conforming journalists in the U.S. and Canada say there is a need for greater training on dealing with harassment and threats. (Reuters/Mario Anzuoni)

‘The threats follow us home’: Survey details risks for female journalists in U.S., Canada

Ask any female journalist about harassment or safety while on assignment and they’ll likely have a story to tell.

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Artwork: Jack Forbes

CPJ Launches Digital Safety Kit

The Committee to Protect Journalists has launched a new, updated Digital Safety Kit for journalists looking to better protect themselves, their sources, and their information. The kit, produced by CPJ’s Emergencies Response Team, combines six bite-sized safety notes on different topics in an accessible format that is easy to digest.

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Artwork: Jack Forbes

Digital Safety Kit

Journalists should protect themselves and their sources by keeping up-to-date on the latest digital security news and threats such as hacking, phishing, and surveillance. Journalists should think about the information they are responsible for and what could happen if it falls into the wrong hands, and take measures to defend their accounts, devices, communications, and…

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People take pictures with cells phones during the formal announcement of election results in Pretoria on May 11. Journalists covering the election had to contend with online harassment, doxxing, and threats. (AFP/Phill Magakoe)

Discredited, threatened, attacked: challenges of covering South Africa’s election in the digital age

In the lead up to South Africa’s elections in May, the Electoral Commission of South Africa accredited CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal as an international observer, monitoring press freedom. Quintal found that unlike 1994–when she covered the violence of the country’s first democratic elections–journalists in 2019 cited online harassment and threats as the biggest…

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Election officials open a seal on a voting machine at a counting centre in Srinagar in May 2019. CPJ met with journalists across India to discuss the safety challenges of covering India's elections. (AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)

Results of India’s election climate for journalist safety are in

Journalists across India are at risk of physical and digital attack in retaliation for their reporting. And during election campaigns, these dangers can increase. As the country went to the polls in recent weeks, CPJ’s India correspondent Kunal Majumder traveled to Guwahati, Imphal, Agartala, Raipur, Bijapur, and Hyderabad to present CPJ’s election safety kit to…

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The WhatsApp messaging app is displayed on an iPhone in May 2019. WhatsApp is advising users to update the messaging app after a vulnerability was identified. (AFP/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

CPJ Safety Advisory: Spyware vulnerability found in WhatsApp

[EDITOR’S NOTE: See CPJ’s updated safety advisory here https://cpj.org/2019/11/cpj-safety-advisory-journalist-targets-of-pegasus-.php.] New York, May 14, 2019–A vulnerability that infects phones with spyware has been identified in the messaging app WhatsApp, according to reports. The attack targets users of Android and iPhone and involves calling users over WhatsApp. Those targeted report receiving a series of missed calls from…

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An injured member of the media is carried away during a rally against the government of President Nicolas Maduro and to commemorate May Day in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 1, 2019. (Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino)

Challenges facing journalists trying to cover latest violence in Venezuela

The long-running political crisis in Venezuela escalated on April 30, 2019, after a civilian and military uprising was thwarted by the government of Nicolás Maduro, according to news reports. Opposition leaders Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo Lopez, accompanied by members of the armed forces, congregated on a highway in eastern Caracas and called upon the armed…

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Journalists work on their phones and laptops during a press conference in Brussels in December. Hackers are using sophisticated phishing methods to try to access the accounts of reporters and human rights defenders. (AFP/Ludovic Marin)

CPJ Safety Advisory: Sophisticated phishing attacks mimic 2FA

The cybersecurity research group CERTFA has reported an increase in sophisticated phishing attacks against journalists and human rights defenders. These attacks, which are global, have also targeted individuals who use more robust email providers or two-step verification (2FA) for their email and social media accounts.

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