What is the Digital Security Helpline?
Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline works with individuals and organizations around the world to keep them safe online. If you’re at risk, we can help you improve your digital security practices to keep out of harm’s way. If you’re already under attack, we provide rapid-response emergency assistance.
Our 24/7 services are available with support in eight languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Tagalog, and Arabic. We respond to all requests within two hours.
How Can We Help You?
We are a free-of-charge resource for civil society around the world. We offer real-time, direct technical assistance and advice to civil society groups & activists, media organizations, journalists & bloggers, and human rights defenders.
The Helpline will walk you or your organization through assessing the risks you face in your work, and together we’ll prioritize your digital security needs. We’ll help you resolve existing problems, teach you some of the most important best practices, and help you get into a secure mindset for the future.
Our Services
- Rapid response for digital security incidents
- Personalized recommendations, instruction, and follow-up support for digital security issues
- Help assessing risks and creating organizational or community security strategies
- Guidance and educational materials on security practices and tools for organizations, communities, groups, and individuals
- Support for securing technical infrastructure, websites, and social media against attacks
- Referrals, capacity-building, in-person consultations, and training
How to Contact Us?
help@accessnow.org
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We commit to using the best practices in the field when we collect, store, and use sensitive information. For more information about how we protect your personal data, please read our Data Usage Policy.
Where is the Helpline?
San Jose
Daniel Bedoya Arroyo
Incident Response Manager
Daniel (email: daniel@accessnow.org) is the Incident Response Manager at Access Now. He works in Access Now's Costa Rica Office. He is currently working on…
Tech
San Jose
Gustaf Björksten
Chief Technologist
Gustaf (email: gustaf@accessnow.org) has been gaining professional experience as a technologist and information security specialist since 1994, most recently in the area of surveillance…
Tech
Berlin
Michael Carbone
Manager of Security Education
Michael (email: michael@accessnow.org) is the Manager of Security Education, where he provides advice to civil society groups and human rights defenders to stay digitally…
Tech
Tunis
Mohamed Chennoufi
Tunis Security Shift Lead
Mohamed (email: mohamed@accessnow.org) is a security incident shift lead at Access Now. He is a computer science engineer. He graduated from the Institut Supérieur…
Tech
Tunis
Akrem Kouki
Security Incident Handler
Akrem (email: akrem@accessnow.org) is a security incident handler at Access Now. He graduated from the Institut Supérieur d'Informatique of Tunis el Manar (ISI) in…
Tech
San Jose
Rogelio Lopez
San Jose Security Incident Handler
Rogelio (email: rogelio@accessnow.org) studied CS at Universidad de Costa Rica. He was a software developer for the corporate world for over 5 years and…
Tech
Other Location
Victor Novikov
Security Incident Handler
Victor (email: victor@accessnow.org) is a Security Incident Handler at Access Now. His duty is to provide digital security advice for users at risk. Victor…
Tech
Manila
Jose Clemente Olaivar
Security Incident Handler Shift Lead
JC Olaivar (email: jc@accessnow.org) is Security Incident Handler Shift Lead at Access Now in Manila. Before joining Access Now, he worked in IT security…
Tech
Berlin
Floriana Pagano
Digital Security Documentation Coordinator
Floriana (email: floriana@accessnow.org) has been an activist for all her adult life. Struck by the possibilities of experimenting with identities in the internet and…
Tech
San Jose
Diana Fernández Sánchez
Security Incident Handler
Diana (email: diana@accessnow.org) works as a Security Incident Handler for Access Now's Costa Rica team. She is willing to get involved in the defense…
Tech
Tunis
Hassen Selmi
Tunis Incident Security Handler
Hassen (email: hassen@accessnow.org) has been a a security incident handler at Access Now since October 2014. He graduated from National School Of Computer Science(ENSI)-Tunisia,…
Tech
Community & Resources
Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline is a member of the Civil Society Computer Emergency Response Team (CiviCERT), an accredited CERT focused on improving the incident response capabilities of civil society groups and individuals around the world.
CiviCERT is an initiative of Rapid Response Network (RARENET), a network of non-governmental organizations, internet content and service providers, and individuals who contribute their time and resources to globally improve the security awareness of civil society groups.
As part of Access Now’s work and in collaboration with the broader community, we create and contribute to guides and materials to help communities, organizations, and individuals improve their digital security. These guides target a spectrum of users, from non-technical users to website administrators. Please find some guides below: