As the "tech nerd" amongst my friends, family, and community, I'm often asked questions about internet safety and digital privacy. In a world in which our data often seems out of our control, many people are becoming more aware of the sheer amount of personal information about themselves publicly available online, and more wary of sharing things on social media or in their day-to-day browsing -- for good reason.

However, some people don't have a choice when it comes to working online, and in the open. Women journalists, and any women in fields like human rights, politics, or grassroots organizing who work out in the open know how difficult it can be to deal with threats to personal safety. These threats are amplified when someone is a person of color, queer, or has other marginalized identities that intersect.

These days, types of online harassment, like doxxing, cyberstalking, social media impersonation, etc. are increasingly common and especially dangerous because interactions in the digital world can become physically, psychologically, and emotionally threatening. That's why it's so crucial to educate, protect, and prevent these kinds of attacks before they occur.

I'm really excited to lend my digisec expertise and technical background this particularly interesting and crucial intersection of needs as a Next Gen Safety Trainer, and am honored to share this space with a super talented and diverse cohort of women/nonbinary folks.

From the IWMF: The journalism community is becoming increasingly diverse, yet the vast majority of security advisers and trainers are cisgender, white men. Recognizing this disparity, the IWMF ispartnering with ROAAAR to train a new generation of inclusive, diverse safety trainers. Together, we are training a cohort of women and non-binary people* in the U.S. throughout 2021, to improve the model for newsroom safety management.