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Last Updated 2017-06This session addresses the basics of what malware is, and how user devices can become exposed to different kinds of malware, in the context of risks most typically encountered by women human rights defenders.
This session was developed for, and should be attributed to, the Institute for War & Peace Reporting resource “Cyberwomen: Holistic Digital Security Training Curriculum for Women Human Rights Defenders” under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International CC BY-SA 4.0 License
Ideally, this session will be followed by the Input session “How to Secure Your Computer”.
Step 1 | Explain to participants what malware is, and review a few of the types of malware that exist – at a minimum, it is recommended to cover the following:
Ransomware and keyloggers are increasingly common types of malware encountered by women human rights defenders in Latin America; if you are working with a group of women from that region, these will be important to address. Likewise, in general, make sure to include case studies and examples of malware that are commonly encountered in the context of the participants attending your training.
Step 2 | Explain some of the most common ways that devices become infected with malware, and the unsafe practices that can lead to such infections. It is also important to explain the different purposes or motivations behind malware deployments:
Step 3 | Finish the session by sharing examples of malware infection scenarios typically encountered by women and WHRDs; you can also share specific case studies involving women and WHRDs (from blogs, news or personal experience – always anonymize these unless you have explicit permission from the target to share their name)
Here there are a few general examples of cases, and you might also know similar cases to these in your context as well: