Check our latest resource to support the creation of digital security help desks.
CiviCERT is happy to present “TechCare. A step-by-step guide to providing digital support for civil society”, developed in collaboration with different CiviCERT members to enable smaller organisations and grassroots groups to set up a team to respond to the digital safety needs of the people they work and fight with.
TechCare. A step-by-step guide to providing support for civil society.
As digital attacks on civil society and vulnerable minorities increase both in number and intensity, new digital security help desks are being created all over the world. However, the available documentation did not match the actual needs of a help desk offering digital safety support to civil society groups. TechCare is a set of simple instructions that could help navigate the workflows and procedures of a digital security help desk while focusing on the specific demand of offering a service to groups that are often underfunded, understaffed, non-hierarchical and exposed to disproportionate threats and the consequent risk of post-traumatic stress disorder among their staff or volunteers.
Follow the steps outlined in TechCare to start planning the creation of a digital security help desk for civil society. Chapter 1 describes how to decide what your help desk is going to do, for whom, and which policies will be required to deliver these services. Chapter 2 outlines the various steps needed to make a realistic plan for your help desk. Chapter 3 illustrates the incident handling process. Finally, chapter 4 offers recommendations on how and why to collaborate with other digital security help desks.
TechCare is available in English and Spanish at https://tech-care.cc/, and provides templates for developing your help desk’s policies.