Economic solutions to protect your website from cyber attacks

The enemies of independent journalism today use an entire electronic arsenal to attack news websites. They can be officials of authoritarian governments, corrupt private companies or even criminal organizations. Their common interest is to silence independent voices and suppress any attempt to expose corruption, neglect or human rights violations.

These cyber attacks are expensive - sometimes unpayable - for small digital newsrooms that lack the resources to hire a cyber security firm or computer consultants. Without technical support, independent news sites are very vulnerable to these attacks.

It is difficult to protect your news website with a minimum of technical experience. Unfortunately, not many journalists know what to do when their site is attacked. Developers, computer engineers and hackers tend to be more familiar with the technological jargon related to security, but not journalists. It would be great if the universities of journalism were committed to incorporating freelance cybersecurity into their academic programs but, for now, we have to accept the reality that we are not prepared to deal with cyber attacks.

If you have an independent news site that works with a modest budget and few resources, you need to learn how to set up security parameters yourself or find technologists who can do it pro-bono. The good news is that there are a few cybersecurity specialists willing to help journalists in danger, and newsrooms can take advantage of their skills.