Bridging the Gap: Delivering Cybersecurity to High-Risk Actors
12 March 2025
The Locarno Suite
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
King Charles Street, London
In recent years, cyber tools have increasingly become vectors for transnational repression. Industry reporting indicates a growing and global pattern of state-sponsored cyber activity, often using commercial spyware, that reaches across borders to target specific sectors of civil society. Journalists, dissidents and human rights defenders among others have been particularly impacted by activity seeking to compromise organisational networks, personal accounts and devices of individuals for surveillance, monitoring and data collection.
Complementing the work of the UK-France led Pall Mall Process, on 12 March 2025, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in partnership with Common Good Cyber led by the Global Cyber Alliance, will convene a meeting dedicated to coordinating cybersecurity support for communities at risk of digital transnational repression.
The UK and its international partners are committed to tackling transnational repression in all its forms and this convening responds to an increasingly urgent need for collaborative multistakeholder action to scale the delivery of technical assistance and capacity building to high-risk civil society actors across the globe.
The UK and the Global Cyber Alliance are delighted to invite you to be part of this critical dialogue, where we will forge partnerships across government, philanthropy, industry, civil society, and the nonprofit cybersecurity sector to strengthen protections for those at highest risk and to defend fundamental rights and freedoms, collective security and the rule of law.
This event will focus on three core areas:
- Targeting support to communities at highest risk. Enhancing collaboration on threat intelligence sharing to ensure interventions reach those in greatest need, especially in the Global South.
- Expanding assistance and capacity. Understand and address gaps in cybersecurity resources provided by cybersecurity nonprofits to high-risk communities.
- Strategic support for cybersecurity nonprofits. Explore how a coordinated funding mechanism could streamline resources, reduce duplication among donors, and enable nonprofits to scale their efforts, maximising support for vulnerable groups worldwide.
Agenda
09:00 – 10:10 – Opening Remarks on the Cyber Threats to High-Risk Actors
10:10 – 11:00 – Session 1: Identifying Effective Support for High-Risk Actors
Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:30 – Session 2: Growing the Capacity of Network Defenders
Lunch
13:30 – 16:10 – Session 3: Strategic Support for the Nonprofit Ecosystem
16:10 – 16:30 – Closing Remarks
Networking Reception
More details on the agenda will be published regularly on commongoodcyber.org.
RSVP
Join us to build a future where human rights, democracy, and free and open societies are defended in and through cyberspace.
This event will only be in-person and is upon invitation only. Contact us at: [email protected] if you are interested to get an invitation.
We remain at your disposal for any information you might need and we look forward to meeting you in London.
