Communications technology and humanitarian security
Research on what communications technology changes for humanitarian operations: what it lets staff do, what it exposes them to, and how the exposure is managed.
The papers collected here were produced for a working group on communications technology and humanitarian security. They deal with three questions that agencies kept running into at the same time: how to map an incident while it is happening, how to hold data securely when the network cannot be trusted, and what governments are doing with the data that humanitarian communications generate.
Papers
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Case study
The applicability of open source systems for security management, incident and crisis mapping
A case study of an open source mapping platform used for incident and crisis mapping in a humanitarian programme, and what it took to make it work.
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Paper
Measures for mitigating cyber-security risks
What the cyber-security risk to a humanitarian organisation actually consists of, and the measures that reduce it in a field setting.
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Paper
Trends in intelligence gathering by governments
How government intelligence gathering has changed, and why humanitarian organisations should treat their own communications as data someone else wants.
About this hub
The hub holds this working group's output rather than the main collection. The rest of the collection is in the library.
The papers are published as they were written. They describe the state of the technology and the practice at the time of writing, and are not maintained as current guidance.
Practical guidance and research on the security of humanitarian staff, for the organisations that send them.