Helping you create a safe space in the digital world.
It’s not your imagination: the threat from hackers is rising.
But news reports about foreign attackers, surveillance, and security leaks are often sensationalized and over-broad, leaving you with the impression there is nothing you can do to keep yourself safe.
Digital Safe Space will strengthen your innate skills in recognizing threats and increase your capacity to avoid them online. Our workshops promote digital literacy, cybersecurity, and online privacy for individuals and organizations.
Security Survey
An in-person meeting with campaign and organization leadership. We will evaluate communication protocols already in place, digital tools being used, staff and volunteer on-boarding and off-boarding, and intake of digital information from the field. We will identify vulnerabilities, help contextualize security concerns for your organization, and prepare a formal recommendation with suggested tools and protocols.
Security Seminar
We will meet with campaign and organization staff to teach a deeper understanding of security concepts and apply them to evaluate common communication and online tools. Importantly, we will demystify digital security by taking an approach that closely relates to physical security, and give users more control over their own digital world. Concepts covered: encryption, password management, two-factor authentication.
Security Workshop
Depending on the specific needs of your organization or campaign, we will meet and worth with staff to implement specific recommended tools. For example, we can help senior staff set up two-factor authentication for important accounts, or implement team password management. The workshop will reinforce the need for these security tools and give staff the ability to implement these tools themselves more broadly for the organization.
Security Assessment
For organizations and campaigns that require a comprehensive set of security recommendations, we will conduct a detailed assessment that goes beyond our initial survey. We will meet with management, staff, and volunteers to find specific vulnerabilities, make recommendations to meet those challenges, and draft checklists and instructions for implementation.
Digital Safe Space helps social justice activists, social change organizations and campaigns configure their technology in a safe and balanced way that protects them against hacks, attacks, and loss of access. Digital Safe Space helps build confidence in the privacy of your devices and the data they contain.
Digital Safe Space works with political campaigns to protect sensitive information while managing a flexible, secure workflow with campaign staff and volunteers. Digital Safe Space performs security assessments, runs workshops with campaign managers and designated staff, and offers ongoing consulting and recommendations as needed.
“We know when someone is standing uncomfortably close. Digital security is no different. We just need to hone our natural instincts.”
Los Angeles Blade — “Express yourself loudly online and securely”
Our Team
Digital Safe Space is a project from communications strategist Alan Klein and technology consulting firm Macktez. With more than 20 years’ experience in the IT consulting field, Macktez emphasizes deliberative planning as a way to avoid reactive crisis management. Managing digital security in particular requires choosing the right tools and giving clients the information they need to recognize threats and make responsible decisions.
NOAH LANDOW is the President and Founder of Macktez and has consulted with hundreds of clients in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London for over 20 years.
MICHAEL HORST is the Vice President of Macktez. He has spent his career building networks and systems that anticipate today’s security landscape and protect clients from unseen threats.
JEREMY SHERBER has managed local political campaigns while also serving as Director of Client Strategy at Macktez. He is the founding president of Grand Street Democrats.
