If we can’t protect people’s data, we risk causing more harm than good
It is estimated that cyber-attacks will cost the global economy $10.5 trillion USD in 2025. When international NGOs are the target, the threat is both huge financial loss and worse, risking the safety of the very people we’re trying to help.
Nonprofits are facing an alarming level of risk, as the third most targeted sector by state actors after government and education. In NetHope’s 2023 State of Humanitarian and Development Cybersecurity Report, 45% of nonprofit Members surveyed reported experiencing a security breach in the preceding 12 months, 66% reported that their cybersecurity programs were underfunded, and 65% were not confident in their cybersecurity.
“We need digital to reach the amount of people that need help,” says Dianna Langley, NetHope’s Chief Operating Officer. “There is no other option to add the efficiency we're going to need to reach all those people. Yet, if we make that experience unsafe, or through the act of using digital bring people to additional harm, then we have failed. That's why we have to do digital protection.”
The humanitarian sector provides vital, last-mile support across the globe, but it doesn’t benefit from the same support and resourcing for cyber protection as other global critical infrastructure. As cybersecurity costs skyrocket, and the threat and reality of attacks grows ever greater, the funding, resources, and people needed to keep our Members’ systems, and therefore their beneficiaries, safe are lacking. And that’s where NetHope comes in.
NetHope is driving multi-sector, collaborative, and strategic approaches to address increasing digital security threats — like cybersecurity and mis/dis/mal information — with an emphasis on insights and skills-sharing, global co-creation, and long-term commitment to protect digital rights.
Cybersecurity isn’t a new problem, but the threat is bigger than ever before.
NetHope has been working on cybersecurity and safe digital transformation since we were founded by and for our Members 22 years ago. For over five years, we’ve convened a Data Protection and Information Security Working Group, which now has more than 350 registered participants. In 2022, in response to the alarming growth of cyber threats, NetHope launched a Global Humanitarian Information Sharing Analysis (ISAC), the first of its kind for the humanitarian sector, and a critical part of ensuring the long-term cyber resilience of nonprofits.
As the threat grows, so too does NetHope’s work equipping the nonprofit sector to respond. In 2023, through the NetHope Digital Protection Program, we delivered more that 120 consultancy hours to 19 NetHope Member organizations, helping them hire Director-level staff, build cybersecurity strategies, implement federated governance for cybersecurity and investigate safe use of emerging technology. We also provided fully funded scholarships for industry-level training to more than 90 individuals from the global NetHope Membership and awarded three cybersecurity capacity grants to Members.
The grants have already had more impact than we anticipated, with one grantee, SOS Children’s Villages, choosing to use the funding not only to train their own staff, but to run national cybersecurity trainings for nonprofits and civil society actors in Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Niger – working to strengthen collaborative efforts for data protection countrywide. The threat of cyber-attacks isn’t new, but the risk is sharply increasing, as is the gap between those who have and those who have not. That’s why the NetHope community has asked us to keep and grow our focus on digital protection over the next ten years.
NetHope is accelerating the digital security capabilities of all our nonprofit Members
NetHope’s unique role isn’t to work out how the technology works – there’s already incredible contextualized expertise within our community. Our role is to bridge the gaps in funding, training, people and access that are leaving our Members open to attack. This requires large-scale advocacy with funders and governments, as well as liberating and mobilizing resources, training, and grants.
In addition to the above, the NetHope Center for the Digital Nonprofit (CDN) will continue pioneering research in the area of digital protection, ensuring contextualized knowledge is available to our community. In 2025, the CDN plans to focus on the following researching areas, identified as priorities by our nonprofit Members and technology partners.
Digital protection is a team sport. With limited resources in an already overstretched sector, bridging this digital divide is only going to be possible with extreme collaboration. And that’s been part of NetHope’s DNA since day one.
We have the potential for a truly global conversation – for the first time ever
The risk is very real – our Members work with 1.67 billion people and the majority of them are becoming digital citizens for the first time through our Members' programs. Our Members need to have the skills and resources at every level of our operations to keep these people’s data safe.
And yet, if we get this right, the potential for positive transformation at scale is huge. “Nonprofits are able to keep themselves and their beneficiaries safe if given the resources,” says Dianna Langley. “The result is that billions of people get to join the global digital conversation. And that’s amazing. As a world, we’ve struggled with whose voices are heard. We are now in that decade where more people are online than not online, and if we can just make it a little bit safer, we can have a global conversation for the first time in human history. And you need that global conversation to solve a global problem like climate change. “It’s the right thing at the right time.”
Don't miss...
Every installment of our six-part series exploring how NetHope’s 2024-2030 strategic plan is tackling the New Digital Divides:
Digital Protection resources
NetHope Members can join the Data Protection and Information Security Working Group by accessing the NetHope Network for the latest information and to get involved!
Learn more about how you can be a part of bridging the New Digital Divides by joining us at the 2024 NetHope Global Summit this October.
Dive into how NetHope is bridging the New Digital Divides through our 2024-2030 strategy.
Learn more about the Digital Protection Program by reading the articles below:
