How journalists with few resources can protect their websites

Adversaries of independent journalists are now using an electronic arsenal to attack news websites. Those adversaries can include agents of authoritarian governments, corrupt private companies or even criminal organizations. Their common interest is to silence independent voices and suppress any attempt to expose cases of corruption, negligence or human rights violations.

Those cyberattacks are costly — sometimes unaffordably so — for small online newsrooms that lack the resources to contract a cybersecurity firm or hire information security consultants. Without technical support, independent news websites are very vulnerable to these attacks.

It is difficult to protect your news website with a minimum of technical expertise. Unfortunately not many journalists know what to do when their website is attacked. Developers, computer engineers and hackers tend to be most familiar with security tech jargon, not journalists. It would be terrific if journalism universities across the board committed to adding cybersecurity as a subject in their academic curriculums, but for now, we have to accept the reality that we are not prepared to face cyberattacks.

If you’re a low-budget independent news site with few resources, you need to learn how to set up security parameters yourself or find technologists who can work pro-bono. The good news is that there are more than a few pro bono cybersecurity specialists willing to help journalists in distress, and newsrooms can take advantage of their offers to help:

• You can request help from the Information Safety and Capacity Project, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that provides technical assistance to online news publications. Newsrooms that publish in Arabic, Russian, Spanish or English can apply for information security training sessions.  
• You can also request help from a new organization called Security Without Borders, a collective of hackers and cybersecurity specialists who donate their time to help journalists and human rights activists in need of better online security.
• Several years ago, Canadian nonprofit eQualit.ie launched the Deflect platform, which aims to help news and human rights websites resolve Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS). These attacks overwhelm website servers with requests for access until the website collapses and becomes inaccessible. Signing up for Deflect is free, with services offered in multiple languages including Spanish, Arabic, Persian and Russian. Deflect also offers free hosting and security certificates for websites built with WordPress.
• You can also request help from Google via its Google Shield Project, which aims to protect news websites and journalists from DDoS attacks.  The support is free for those who work in independent media and includes real-time analytics and security certificate support. You can sign up multiple websites in a single account.

In addition to support from those organizations, journalists should also learn the basics in terms of what steps should be taken to prevent cyberattacks. You probably aren’t going to become a developer overnight, but it’s worth making an effort to learn the basics and thus be better prepared to request technical help when facing a DDoS attack. Some basic cybersecurity measures for media websites include the following:

• Host your website on a dedicated server instead of a shared server. This will protect you from hackers who can use vulnerabilities on one website to attack another site hosted on the same server.
• Get a security certificate and a unique IP address (you can get those for free with Deflect or the Google Shield Project). Security certificates encrypt the information that transit between your users’ browsers and your server, while a unique IP address gives your website increased stability.
• Install web application firewalls on all computers in your newsroom. Use a strong antivirus for each device.
• Use strong passwords — you can use tools like this one to generate them.
• Update every piece of software your website uses.
• If you built your website with WordPress, make sure you hide your login page from site visitors. Other key steps for secure WordPress sites include the following: eliminating the metatag generator, customizing your login address and removing any information from your site about what WordPress version you’re using.
• It’s good practice to only use short URLs on your site content. Hackers tend to use long URLs to gain access to the website files directory, which can then allow them to deface the homepage, destroy information or inject code.
• Avoid keeping website files public, particularly files like readme.html, readme.txt, wp-config.php, wp-includes and .htaccess. With this simple step, you can prevent many common website attacks.
• Set up a daily backup of your website. If a cyberattack is successful and infects your website's database, you can upload a clean copy while you counterattack the infection.
• Do not use insecure WiFi to access your website.

Jorge Luis Sierra is an award-winning Mexican investigative reporter and editor and an expert in digital security. 

Deadline extended: ARIJ offers training on media ethics [Syria]

Journalists from Syria with at least two years of experience can apply for this program.
The International Media Support (IMS), The Guardian and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) will select 20 Syrian journalists to take part in their advanced training program about media ethics.

The nine-month program includes training and mentorship focusing on digital journalism, multimedia, content creation techniques and publishing strategies. The first training course will take place July 31 to Aug. 4 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Applicants must propose an idea for an investigative story. The program will pay GBP2,000 (US$2,562.80) for each investigation.

The deadline has been extended to June 26.

For more information (in Arabic), click here.

Mongabay seeks copy editor/grant writer [Worldwide]

Journalists with five years of experience can apply for a remote, full-time position.

Mongabay is hiring a senior copy editor/grant writer. He or she can be based anywhere in the world.

The journalist will lead Mongabay’s efforts to track and demonstrate its effectiveness to its funders and audience, in addition to helping the global editorial team in the quality of Mongabay's daily publishing.

Responsibilities include proofreading articles; documenting trends; working with the operations team to understand the objectives of Mongabay’s various grant reporting projects; developing reports for established grants; analyzing and synthesizing collected impact data; and more.

Apply now. Applications must be in English.

For more information, click here.

Digital Humanities + Data Journalism Symposium open [US]

Journalists and others interested in data reporting are invited to this conference in Miami.

The University of Miami will host the second Digital Humanities + Data Journalism Symposium Sept. 14 to 16. 

The event will feature lectures, networking and tutorials about shared data types, visualization method and data communication, including text visualization, network diagrams, maps, databases and data wrangling.

The list of keynote speakers includes Lynn Cherny, a data scientist and visualization designer; Steve Duenes, head of graphics at The New York Times; and Deb Verhoeven, professor of media and communication at Deakin University in suburban Melbourne, Australia, and director of the Humanities Networked Infrastructure project.

Registration is ongoing and costs US$99. The deadline to apply for a scholarship, which may cover travel and registration, is June 26. 

For more information, click here.

Course focuses on humanitarian journalism [Spain]

Journalists and journalism students interested in humanitarian issues can enroll in this course.

The UAM/El País School of Journalism is organizing a workshop on humanitarian journalism, which will take place July 5 in Madrid.

Participants will learn the features of humanitarian journalism, how to choose topics, how to deliver them ethically and how to approach people in a humanitarian crisis. The instructor is journalist Lola Hierro.

Registration is ongoing until spaces are filled. The cost is EUR25.

For more information (in Spanish), click here.

Banipal Visiting Writer Fellowship open [MENA]

Journalists can apply for a three-month fellowship in Durham, England.

St. Aidan’s College at the University of Durham and Banipal magazine, with the support of the British Council, offer an annual writing fellowship for a published author writing in Arabic.

The fellowship provides a space for an author to reflect and write as well as share his or her work with British audiences.

The fellow will receive travel, full board and accommodation, and an honorarium of GBP1,500 (US$1,917).

The deadline is Sept. 1.

For more information, click here.

Women Photograph Mentorship Program open [Worldwide]

Female, female-identifying and non-binary documentary photographers of any nationality can apply for mentorship.

Women Photograph is launching its 2017 Mentorship Program, which will pair industry leaders with 22 budding photojournalists over the course of a year. 

Mentors will include editors from National Geographic, NPR, The New York Times and The Guardian, and photographers who are the recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, Guggenheim Fellowships and World Press Photo awards.

Candidates must have less than five years of professional experience.

The deadline is July 15.

For more information, click here.