Today, online security company CloudFlare announced the launch of Project Galileo, an intitiative which aims to protect civil society organizations and other public interest groups from distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks. Access, along with 13 other human rights organizations, helped advise CloudFlare on the creation of the project, and will continue to work with the compnay to protect websites at risk.
“Project Galileo shows how Silicon Valley tech companies can actively create a more secure and safe internet for the world’s most vulnerable internet users. Civil society actors around the world are under attack and this service helps create a level of protection we would otherwise not be able to access. The right to freedom of expression now has a new ally online,” said Access Executive Director Brett Solomon.
On Access’ 24/7 Digital Security Helpline, around the world we’re increasingly seeing civil society websites come under attack. Whether an independent news site reporting on election irregularities or a LGBT organization fighting for their very right to live, activists and NGOs are under threat globally, often from the most well-funded adversaries around the world. With Project Galileo, CloudFlare will extend its full, enterprise-class DDoS attack protection to the websites of high-risk civil society groups at no cost.
CloudFlare’s Project Galileo joins a small crowd of similar initiatives, like the non-profit Equalit.ie’s Deflect, Virtual Road, and Google’s Project Shield, all of which which aim to help civil society websites protect themselves from DDoS attacks.
“As we saw last March at RightsCon, there is tremendous demand from activists and human rights defenders around the world for the technology sector to develop services that can defend their sites. Different groups face different threats, so we need a diverse ecosystem of platforms to counter the barrage of attacks we’re seeing online everyday,” continued Solomon.
Access congratulates CloudFlare on the successful launch of this important initiative, and looks forward to working with the company in our joint goal of protecting free expression, access to information, and other rights online.