By Alejandro Martínez
The Committee to Protect Journalists highlighted last week the cyber-attack against the websites of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the International Symposium for Online Journalism, which knocked down the sites for two weeks.
The March 11 attack was tracked back to computers in Russia and forced the Information Technology team at the University of Texas at Austin – which hosts the websites – to place the sites in quarantine until all the vulnerabilities had been remediated. The Knight Center created two temporary WordPress blogs to continue with its operations during the crisis.
According to an analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation quoted by CPJ, attacks against human rights and freedom of expression organizations “are very common.”
Masashi Crete-Nishihata, research manager at the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab, told CPJ in an e-mail that "Many groups encounter such threats on a near-daily basis, and civil society must exercise constant vigilance to protect against these threats."
CPJ noted other attacks against media outlets and journalism organizations, including a February attack against CPJ that failed to take the site down.
The motive of the attack against the Knight Center remains unknown. Regardless, it underscores the need for further preparation and awareness from journalists, media outlets and freedom of expression organizations regarding digital risks.
To protect themselves, CPJ senior adviser for journalist security Frank Smyth suggested using Metasploit’s open-source tools to test for potential system vulnerabilities, or Citizen Labs' tips on self-protection.
“Vigilance is the first step to stay safe,” he said.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
