Building digital resilience: reflections from our new director of digital risk and resilience 

Threats against those challenging unaccountable power are on the rise – with digital attacks becoming more sophisticated, increasingly pervasive, and harder to detect. At the same time, the internet freedom community is under strain. Drastic funding cuts, widespread burnout, and a surge in demand for digital and information security support have made it a difficult year for many security providers, despite the existence of a robust digital protection ecosystem.

In the midst of these challenges, Open Briefing is stepping up. We are actively growing our digital risk and resilience team – expanding our efforts, and reaffirming our commitment to build resistance and resilience among the grassroots activists, community groups, and social movements challenging unaccountable power. 

We aim to reduce and limit digital vulnerabilities for individuals and organisations, to keep them and their sensitive information safer, by making it harder for adversaries – who often have sophisticated surveillance and censorship technologies – to target them. We also help with digital security, digital rights, digital transformation, and digital wellbeing to offer the resilience needed for impactful social change. Our team is growing, both in size and skillsets, looking for strategic ways that we can lift up and contribute to the wider ecosystem. 

It is with immense gratitude and hope that I step into this position as Open Briefing’s new director of digital and information security. As a long-time member of the internet freedom community, I look forward to drawing on my experience and networks to advance our mission. My initial priorities include expanding our team of practitioners to include under-recognised communities and ensuring our team is representative of the communities we serve; taking steps to more fully integrate Open Briefing into the broader internet freedom community, including taking a more active role in threat information sharing networks; and expanding our internal knowledge base of resources and approaches which will help us standardise our approaches and streamline service delivery. 

Open Briefing has a unique approach to digital risk and resilience. As we move into this next phase, these six guiding principles will inform our work.  

1. Tailoring mitigations based on risk. Context matters when assessing security and making recommendations. Our approach is grounded in how adversaries actually seek to compromise information, ensuring our guidance addresses the most pressing threats, available resources, and timing constraints.

2. Accessible recommendations. Security advice can often be too theoretical, leaving individuals and organisations unsure of what concrete steps they can take to protect themselves and their communities. Our recommendations are designed to be applicable in the real world. 

3. Strategic coordination. We recognise that stronger coordination between service providers will allow us to reduce duplication, maximise efficiency, and multiply impact. Intentional referral programmes, regular communication, and transparent collaboration will make us more resilient as a protection community.

4. Wellbeing at the centre. The wellbeing of those providing care and protection services cannot be overlooked. Open Briefing is ready to invest in building and sharing strategies and resources to guide digital security practitioners as they navigate trauma and prioritise self and community care.

5. Sharper security. We are expanding our team of security practitioners to cover additional areas of specialised technical expertise which will allow us to respond to increasingly sophisticated digital threats. We are also actively participating in threat information sharing mechanisms, as sharing attack tactics, techniques, and procedures allows us to prepare for and prevent incidents before they occur.

6. Holistic approach to security. It is impossible to separate digital resilience from physical security and wellbeing. Our teams work together to ensure we’re offering holistic support that addresses all three areas. From internal referrals to joint trainings, our goal is to provide comprehensive support. 

Grounded by the above principles, the team at Open Briefing exists to provide critical support to grassroots activists and civil society organisations. If you or your organisation need assistance navigating risks, you can learn more about our services below. 

• Responsive Assistance: Open Briefing offers fully-funded holistic security support to a wide range of activists and organisations at risk. This mechanism is for urgent protection, digital, and wellbeing needs. Learn more about who we can help here. 

• Consultancy and training: We offer consultancy, training, and retained support to help nonprofits and foundations meet their risk management, duty of care, and data protection commitments to staff, grantees, and local partners. Reach out to us to schedule a call to discuss detailed offerings and pricing. 

• Community coordination: We coordinate or participate in several impact-driven civil society networks. We’re always eager to connect with other organisations and networks working to defend civil society and protect civic space. Get in touch if you’d like to discuss opportunities for further collaboration and coordination. 

We also want to recognise that digital resilience alone isn’t enough. Physical security, digital security, and wellbeing are all connected. If you’re burnt out and depressed, it’s hard to make grounded security decisions. If your personal information is revealed online or you’re targeted by trolls, your wellbeing will suffer. But when you have a solid grounding in all three areas, they strengthen each other. We call this ‘holistic security’. It helps you feel more resilient, better equipped to resist attacks, and able to carry out your vital work more safely.

I’m thrilled to embark on this journey and would love to connect with other practitioners. Share your own reflections on these guiding principles via LinkedIn, where we can continue the conversation. We appreciate your trust in our team at Open Briefing, and we look forward to expanding digital resilience together. 

Ashley Fowler is the director of digital risk and resilience at Open Briefing. She brings 15 years’ experience building and managing diverse teams, designing tailored interventions, and advancing social justice efforts. Before joining Open Briefing, she was senior manager of internet freedom and resilience programmes at Internews, where she led a portfolio of global projects working at the intersection of technology and human rights.

Ashley is an active member of the internet freedom community, leading initiatives on organisational security, journalist security, and threat information sharing. She co-founded the human rights centred design community and has collaborated with trainers, design experts, and tool developers to ensure open source privacy and security tools meet the needs of at-risk users.

Prior to joining Internews, Ashley worked extensively with global LGBTQIA+ communities, and she remains committed to ongoing advocacy and solidarity.

Connect with Ashley on LinkedIn to follow her reflections on digital resilience and security, as she steps into her new role at Open Briefing. You can also follow Open Briefing on LinkedIn for updates on our wider work supporting activists and civil society worldwide.