[liberationtech] ICT and Information Security Consulting Services for NGOs/Activist/Press?

[Nathan of Guardian]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2014, at 12:35 PM, Jesse Krembs wrote:
> Dear all
> 
> For a number of years now I've been ponderer the idea of ICT/IS
> consultancy
> organization focus on the NGO/Activists/Press  (N/A/P) markets. The basic
> idea being that there should be a boutique consultancy group that is
> focused on upping the over all ICT/IS game of N/A/P world.

> So a couple of questions.
> 1: Is there already someone doing this?

Global Journalist Security seems to be doing it right in terms of
creating a business solely focused on comprehensive physical and
operation security trianings: http://www.journalistsecurity.net/
They claim to be "the only news and nonprofit training provider to
successfully compete in both the private and donor-driven sectors."

Otherwise, there are a lot more groups out there in the world doing this
kind of work than you may think. They don't do it as their primary work
or source of funding, but it is an important aspect of ensuring their
larger work is not compromised by ICT/IS issues.

A few examples from my own efforts include Tibet Action Institute's
digital security trainings and fellowship program:
https://tibetaction.net/digital-security/
https://tibetaction.net/project/fellowship-in-cyber-security/

and the work we do at the Guardian Project in mobile security trainings,
such as when we partnered with the Rory Peck Trust for an online mobile
security talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KekYW8DhDkU

We also partner with Small World News and Free Press Unlimited to offer
trainings for freelance journalists, built around the security
curriculum developed for the StoryMaker app:
https://storymaker.cc/lessons/?Lesson=/2/2.2/&Lang=en

Again, this is not a primary consultancy profit / funding source for any
organization, but we do have capability and expertise in-house, and are
able to support this work as part of grants or contract work.

That said, we are often short handed at trainings, and when it comes to
providing long term support and broader training on ICT/IS issues for an
organizations, we have to often say "sorry, we don't do that".

> 2: Is there a market for this sort of organization?

Sure, if you can show people you are in it for the long haul, and
provide excellent value and appropriate rates for the space, then I
think you could build a decent business out of this.

> 3: How do you make the funding work?

I think the funding is out there, either directly from
foundations/funders who are concerned about their grantees, or from
organizations themselves who have built into ICT/IS auditing, upgrades
and training into their budgets for grants. 

If you can mix in private industry customers, as GJS does, then you can
likely come up with something that would work in a sustainable way.

+n

-- 
  Nathan of Guardian
  nathan at guardianproject.info