Protecting Yourself From Digital Snoops Isn’t that Difficult
Kenyan journalists and civic watchdogs are really worried that rogue government agencies or organised crime gangs or even their employers are spying on them online.
Almost 100 #HacksHackers Nairobi members (well, actually 91 if we’re being precise) attended the chapter’s meetup on digital security with AfricaHackon at the Nairobi Garage on August 28.
Most said they felt vulnerable or powerless, and that they are convinced that their online data is being monitored.
The striking thing is that this fear is so widespread. The people in the room were journalists and developers from across the economic spectrum, ranging from large corporations to small startups, and even included students. All had the same fear of the (un)known.
And, it’s not just Kenyans. Hacks/Hackers Africa’s sister organisation, Code for Africa, is inundated with pleas for help on cyber security from across Africa. They’ve built encrypted tools such as afriLEAKS to protect those at most danger, such as whistleblowers, and are training investigative journalists and civic watchdogs on personal digital security, but can’t get to everyone immediately.
And, that’s where Hacks/Hackers comes in! We’ve teamed up with other civic tech pioneers such as AfricaHackon to host crash-courses such as the Cyber Security and Privacy Online meetup.
The 3 hour meetup was kicked off by Madi Jimba and dived straight into a hands-on session that helped dispel some of the worst myths around digital security, as well as give participants useful tips on keeping themselves safe from online predators.
Samuel Mwai, AfricaHackon’s deputy lead, delivered a short keynote before his 11-person team gave each participant a one-on-one assessment of their risk profiles and major vulnerabilities.
Some of the biggest ‘ah ha’ moments included revelations by Bright Gameli about just how much information you leave online everytime you share geo-tagged photos of yourself on social media. You might just be helping thieves and stalkers learn your routine, from where you live, work, hang-out, and go on holiday, to what car you drive (because it features in your photos), etc. Bright’s session was a real eye-opener.
Oh, and did I mention that we quickly ran out of seats?
AfricaHackon’s Crispus (CK) helped us all understand the need to adopt the use of strong passphrases rather than passwords for enhanced security.
If you use public transit vehicles in Nairobi, then you are familiar with the tap-and-go payment option. The functionality on such cards is made possible by a technology known as Near Field Communication (NFC).
AfricaHackon’s Jade led an interactive demo showing just how easy NFC Hacking is … and why you need to be super careful that you’re not a target.
It wasn’t all fear mongering though.
Code for Kenya’s new country lead, Catherine Gicheru (who is something of a media celeb, having been founding editor-in-chief of the Star + being feted internationally as one of Africa’s best female investigative journalists), called for more collaborations between coders and content people.
Pointing to some major tools built by Hacks/Hackers members that have been adopted by major media groups, Catherine dismissed hype that journalists will all learn to code and rather argued that the best projects are those where journalists and technologists collaborate as equals.
CfKenya is offering Innovation Fellowships for these kinds of collaborations, including a new project called Alumni Konnect (no typo there :) )
Alumni Konnect aims to connect the alumni of primary public schools in Nairobi to their alma-mater, so they can “pay back” some of their success by donating everything from teaching equipment / textbooks, to their time as mentors, or as professionals who can help the schools improve their administration. Winnie Kamau, the Innovation Fellow who is leading the project, used her lightning talk slot to call for collaborators. Interested? Or just want to be kept updated? Sign up here.
The meetup closed right on schedule, at 8.00pm.
Hey! Wait! Where are all the super useful tips on digital security?!?
The juiciest tips are being kept for the people who made the effort to be at the meetup? ;-)
If you’ve got serious questions though, the folk at AfricaHackon have just partnered with m:Lab to provide a 3-month long Cyber Security bootcamp. You can read all about it here.
Security-In-A-Box (by our friends at Tactical Technologies) also offers a wealth of resources and information.
Hacks/Hackers Nairobi’s next meetup will be on Friday, 25th September 2015 at the Nairobi Garage from 5pm.
Our September meetup will feature, among other things, important discussions around #DoctoredAbuse and strategies for building standalone news tools, such as the Star’s Dodgy Dr loop-up service that compliments news reportage. Other topics on the agenda for discussion include net neutrality and internet.org, as well as the election of a new Hacks/Hackers Nairobi Ex-Co.
The Hacks/Hackers Nairobi community lives here and uses #HHNBO to track its meetups on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
Do you have speaker and theme suggestions? Add them here and we will be sure to slot them in.
