- You shouldn’t have to be a cybersecurity expert to have the tools to keep you safe.
- ACT identifies over 1,500 tools and resources for specific communities to prevent and respond to cyber harms.
New York. 31 October 2023. Actionable Cybersecurity Tools (ACT), an initiative by the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) in partnership with Cyber Civil Defense (CCD) stakeholders, is now available to help individuals and underserved communities find the right solutions for their online protection needs. ACT is a wiki including over 1,500 tools and resources at launch – a number that will continue to grow as new tools are added. The wiki is being built with contributions from our partners, including the CyberPeace Institute (CPI) and the Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI).
ACT identifies cybersecurity tools and resources that address the specific needs of high-risk communities, such as parents and families, SMBs, nonprofits and charities, colleges and universities, journalists, and others. ACT is easy to use and anyone, regardless of their level of cybersecurity knowledge, can use it to understand cyber risks and find the tools they need to protect themselves or their organization.
ACT users with specific challenges can now easily find tools and guidance for their specific needs. Examples might include:
ACT’s over 1,500 cybersecurity tools come from from a wide variety of sources, including tools from Nonprofit Cyber members. The number of tools and resources will continue to grow as new contributions, and new communities, are added. The wiki is currently available in English, but GCA hopes to add additional languages in the future.
ACT is a wiki, which will enable a broad community to make contributions and otherwise improve its content as the resource develops. GCA is grateful for the contributions of CRI in helping lead the work regarding small businesses, and CPI in helping engage nonprofits and charities.
Public benefits
The ACT initiative has other significant public benefits. It can be used not only by end users, but also cybersecurity solutions providers to identify tools to include in service offerings. Most notably, ACT will foster the identification of gaps in tools and tool coverage against known cyber risks. The visibility provided by ACT will enable the community of cybersecurity stakeholders to develop new tools and solutions that can close the most critical cybersecurity gaps. Finally, ACT aims at contributing to stronger collaboration among cybersecurity professionals, service providers, and tool suppliers, in line with GCA’s mission and the Cyber Civil Defense Initiative.
If you have content, tools and/or resources that you might want included please contact us: ccd@globalcyberalliance.org. Similarly, let us know if you would like to take on a more significant role helping to identify tools and resources for a specific community, as CRI and CPI have done.
Cyber Civil Defense
ACT is a part of the Cyber Civil Defense initiative, sponsored by Craig Newmark Philanthropies. ACT’s objective is simple – to leverage the power of inclusivity and solutions from open-source, commercial, and government providers to enable a whole-of-society response to cyber insecurity.
Craig Newmark, the founder of craigslist and the progenitor of Cyber Civil Defense, said: “Cyber Civil Defense requires that we give every member of society the tools they need to protect themselves and their community from cyber threats. ACT is a comprehensive effort to identify and make discoverable those tools. I call on everyone to continue and expand the effort, and to help grow ACT so it provides the same effective support for communities’ cybersecurity that other resources have for less serious problems, from The Joy of Cooking for cooking to the Encyclopedia Britannica for school papers.”
Philip Reitinger, President & CEO of the Global Cyber Alliance, said: “In GCA’s work, we have learned that the most important cybersecurity problems are solved not by a single entity, but by a community. ACT puts that lesson into practice. Through a wiki structure, and an open content license that allows broad use, ACT will bring the cybersecurity community together to identify the tools and resources that are available to address challenges, especially for communities that have been left behind and are struggling with cybersecurity threats. And where there are gaps in tools, ACT will help identify them and catalyze community development of new solutions.”
About the Global Cyber Alliance
The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating cyber risk and improving our connected world. GCA works with our partner community worldwide to build practical, accessible resources and measure their impact, in order to achieve a secure, trustworthy Internet that enables social and economic progress for all.
Related article: https://www.globalcyberalliance.org/accessible-cybersecurity-tools/
