One click away: How safe are journalists from cyberattacks?
By Seli Baisie Sena receives a message while working on a story. It appears to be from a trusted contact and carries an urgent request to open a link. There is nothing unusual about the message. Sena is not alone. Like her, journalists receive links, documents, emails and WhatsApp messages throughout the working day. But […]
Journalists face an increasing risk of cyberattacks in their daily work, as they rely heavily on digital tools such as phones, social media, and cloud storage. A survey of 15 journalists at GBC News found that many lack basic digital security practices, including password management, two-factor authentication, and awareness of phishing attacks.
Only 26.7% of participants used unique passwords for all their work accounts, and 60% used unique passwords for only some accounts. Password managers were used by only 33.3% of respondents, and two-factor authentication was enabled on work emails by fewer than one-third of participants. Despite recognizing cyber threats as a concern, only 66.7% of journalists updated their devices regularly, and nine did not use device encryption.
Disinformation was identified as the top cybersecurity threat, followed by account takeover, device theft or loss, and data leaks.
Written by urgent.news from GBC Ghana's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
