Google and technology incubator platform Jigsaw have
unveiled a suite of free tools that will help guard against digital attacks
during the election period in Kenya.
Dubbed “Protect Your Election”, the tools are designed to
help safeguard news organisations, human rights groups, and election monitoring
sites from online threats. Work by such organisations is critical before and during
elections.
Africa Uncensored -- owned by investigative journalist
John-Allan Namu -- and Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) are some of
the sites that were famously defaced.
The threats include DDoS (denial-of-service) attacks,
phishing and attempts to break into people’s private accounts.
Google is an American tech giant whose innovative search
technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every
day.
Global security
Jigsaw is an incubator within Alphabet that builds
technology to tackle some of the toughest global security challenges.
The technology helps in, among other things, thwarting
online censorship, mitigating threats from digital attacks, countering violent
extremism and protecting people from online harassment.
One of those tools unveiled on Tuesday is Project Shield,
which provides free DDoS protection to news sites, human rights groups, and
election monitoring sites.
“It is important to provide free protection to these
organisations in particular, as they are the groups that provide voters with
information they need to make informed decisions. The site is in both English
and Swahili,” said an organiser.
The new suite also offers digital defences for individuals,
including Password Alert — a Chrome extension that helps protect against
phishing attacks by alerting you if a website is trying to steal your Google
password.
Verification
Another tool offered by Protect Your Election is 2-Step
Verification, which provides an extra layer of defense to keep your account
secure.
The suit also includes uProxy, a virtual private network
(VPN) that will be available for organisations as opposed to individuals. This would come in handy should the State decide to censor
social media.
About 125,000 DDoS attacks happen every week and tens of
millions of phishing attempts are recorded every few months.
DDoS attacks have often targeted investigative journalists
and election monitoring groups in various countries.
During the last few years, there has been a rise in digital
attacks targeting government, political party websites, press and journalists
around the world.
Commenting on the suite, Google Kenya Country Manager
Charles Murito said: “Everyone has a right to a full and credible story. The
free Google tools are designed to safeguard publishers, news organisations,
human rights groups and election monitoring sites from digital attacks during
the election period.”
Source: Business Daily
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