How to report an incident

Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline works with individuals and organizations around the world to keep them safe online. The Helpline supports users at risk to improve their digital security practices, and provides rapid-response emergency assistance to users under attack.

The Helpline will walk individuals and organizations through assessing the risks they face in their work, helps them prioritize their digital security needs, help them resolve existing problems and recommend digital security best practices.

A complete list of services can be found here.

The Helpline will reply to requests in 9 different languages:

ENGLISH

ARABIC

FRENCH

SPANISH

RUSSIAN

PORTUGUESE

GERMAN

FILIPINO

ITALIAN

Instructions for users on how to contact the Helpline

These instructions can be found in the Helpline page of Access Now’s website.

  1. Send an email to the Helpline

    Send us your request or security question. If you can, use our PGP key. You will receive an email confirmation right away.

    • PGP key server: hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net

    • Fingerprint: 6CE6 221C 98EC F399 A04C 41B8 C46B ED33 32E8 A2BC

  2. We follow up with you

    You will hear from us within two hours of your request.

  3. Secure the conversation

    We will (1) secure our communications channel with you, and (2) discuss your needs.

  4. Confirm your information

    The first time you reach out to us, we will seek to confirm with trusted partners that you are who you are. In particular, we will confirm your email address and your organization.

    This is necessary to protect you in case you are being impersonated, and ensures that we focus our support on civil society groups, media, and human rights defenders.

  5. Get help

    We will provide you the support you need, which could include referring you to another organization to provide the requested service and collaborating with the provider to ensure delivery of that service.

Important recommendations

To ensure users contact us in a safe manner, we recommend they do the following:

  • Include only non-sensitive information about their case in their initial email to us unless they are using an encrypted communication tool like GPG or Signal.

  • Add only non-sensitive details in the subject line of the email.

  • Prepare ahead. Rather than contact the Helpline only when facing a digital security emergency, we recommend users to sert up a secure communications channel with us before they face an emergency. Helpline staff can assist them in setting up a secure communication channel so that there will be no delay when assistance is needed.

  • If a user does not have email encryption or another secure communication channel configured, they can just send an email to help@accessnow.org stating that they need assistance. The Helpline’s incident handlers will help create a secure communications channel so as to discuss with the user the more sensitive details of their needs.

  • In some countries, reaching out for digital security assistance may be risky. If a user is concerned about this, we recommend users to ensure that their email provider uses Transport Layer Security (TLS). This protects information such as the “To” address and email content from third parties outside the email provider, offering some protection in reaching out to us.

See also our Intermediary process.