Mouhamed Ali Al Hamoud Al-Arab
Plant protection, Teacher in Orient University
Aleppo University, Syria
Email:[email protected]
DOI: 10.23918/ICABEP2023p57
Abstract:
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provide essential support and services to over 1 billion people worldwide, leveraging technology to carry out their activities and manage sensitive data, leveraging technology to carry out their activities and manage sensitive data. For example, social media, messaging apps, and collaboration platforms help humanitarian organizations to communicate and coordinate with their teams, partners, and beneficiaries in real-time. NGOs use mobile data collection tools and geographic information system (GIS) mapping to gain insights into community needs. Drones and remote monitoring technologies aid humanitarian organisations in responding to crises and disasters, especially in hard-to-reach areas. Digital payment systems increase aid distribution efficiency and stimulate local economies. Unfortunately, cyberattacks and information operations aimed at humanitarian and development NGOs are on the rise, with malicious actors relentlessly attacking NGOs in the cyberspace because of the data they hold. In fact, the non-governmental sector is the second most targeted one after IT. In the last three years, cybercriminals and state-sponsored actors have accessed systems and personal records, stolen millions of dollars in donations, conducted surveillance operations, and carried out disinformation campaigns against NGOs – even large organisations like Save the Children, Mercy Corps, and Roots of Peace. These attacks not only endanger lives, but also compromise the trust that is critical to the work of NGOs.
Keyword: Cybersecurity – Humanitarian organizations – Challenges – Solutions-NGOs-Cybercriminals
ICABEP2023
5th International Conference on Accounting, Business, Economics and Politics
Organized by
Tishk International University, College of Administration and Economics, Salahaddin University-Erbil, and
University of Szczecin, Poland.
