Cybersecurity for NGOs, think tanks, and media
Organizations: NGOs, think tanks, newsrooms
NGOs, think tanks, and media are among the most frequent targets of coordinated attacks, surveillance, and attempts to silence them. A42 protects your data, sources, and online presence without requiring a big budget or an in-house security team.
Cybersecurity challenges for NGOs, think tanks, and media
You're a target, not "too small"
Journalists, activists, and researchers are regularly hit with phishing, spyware, and account-takeover attempts, often by well-resourced actors, including state-sponsored ones. The question isn't whether you're of interest to an attacker, but how easily they can reach you.
Protecting sources and sensitive contacts
Lists of sources, beneficiaries, partners, and donors are data whose leak affects real people, and sometimes their safety. Here the cost of an incident is measured in more than money.
A large, high-turnover team: staff and freelancers
NGOs, think tanks, and newsrooms work with in-house staff and a large external team: authors, experts, contractors, volunteers. That's dozens or hundreds of accounts and access grants, often on personal devices and from different countries. With constant staff turnover, access is granted to newcomers quickly but often not revoked when people leave — and these "orphaned" accounts become a ready entry point.
No in-house security expertise
Resources are limited, and there's usually no security specialist on the team, let alone a CISO even part-time. Even basic processes, like setting up a WAF, have no one to handle them, so security rests either on the enthusiasm of a few people or on nothing but good faith.
Under constant pressure
For media, think tanks, and NGOs, the availability of their resource is quite literally a precondition for existing. Yet their sites and individual publications often face DDoS, defacement, and blocking attempts.
Sprawling, forgotten infrastructure
Campaign landing pages, event sites, and special projects are spun up quickly and then left unattended, while outdated CMSs, forgotten subdomains, and test pages pile up. It's these, rather than the main site, that most often become the weakest link.
Why A42
- Enterprise-grade protection at an affordable price. We tailor the price to a specific set of services — to your budget and goals.
- Experience operating under state-sponsored attacks, with Gov & Defence Tech–grade defence methodologies.
- We can act as your full external cybersecurity partner and cover exactly the scope you need: from a cybersecurity audit and setting up basic things like a WAF to systematic, continuous vulnerability monitoring.
- We work where there's no in-house security specialist or CISO, even part-time: we take on both the strategic view and the routine processes.
- Experience with three-way partnerships, where one party (the beneficiary) receives the service and another pays for it — in particular within donor-funded projects.
- A fast start with limited resources: first we cover the urgent needs according to priorities and risks, then move on in line with the client's needs and capabilities.
- We help you meet GDPR and donor-agreement requirements for processing and storing personal data. We implement the technical and organizational measures donors check during due diligence, so that data doesn't become a bottleneck in a grant application or in reporting.
Cybersecurity Products and Services for NGOs, Think Tanks, and Media
First
Account protection based on least privilege: MFA and control over access to sensitive data and services. The Joiner–Mover–Leaver processes are especially important — timely revocation of access amid team turnover, so that "orphaned" accounts don't become an entry point.
Training against phishing and social engineering, with hands-on scenarios and attack simulations for in-house staff and the external team. It builds a security culture where there's no in-house security specialist.
An objective assessment of your current state and a step-by-step roadmap on a limited budget: what to do first and how to gradually build managed security without an in-house team.
A42 Recon + Exposure
+ free AI SASTContinuous monitoring of your website and external assets: it finds forgotten landing pages, subdomains, and test pages and detects leaks before an attacker can use them. Assessment runs entirely from the outside.
As needed
Affordable and fast penetration testing of your site, platform, and APIs when you need confirmation that a vulnerability can actually be exploited, with a prioritized remediation plan.
If you work mostly in the cloud and SaaS: eliminating insecure configurations and putting access in order.