The Digital First Aid Kit aims to provide preliminary support for people facing the most common types of digital threats. The Kit offers a set of self-diagnostic tools for human rights defenders, bloggers, activists and journalists facing attacks themselves, as well as providing guidelines for digital first responders to assist a person under threat.

The Kit begins with ways to establish secure communication when you or a contact are facing a digital threat and want to reach out for support. The Kit then moves on to sections on account hijacking, seizure of devices, malware infections and DDoS attacks. Each section begins with a series of questions about you, your devices and your situation. These questions will guide you through a self-assessment or help a first responder better understand the challenges you are facing. It then lays out initial steps to understand and potentially fix the problems. The steps should also help you or a first responder to recognize when to request help from a specialist.

The Digital First Aid Kit is not meant to serve as the ultimate solution to all your digital emergencies. It strives to give you tools that can help you make a first assessment of what is happening and determine if you can mitigate the problem on your own. If at any moment you feel uncomfortable or unsure about implementing any of the solutions outlined here, ask for help from trained professionals.

The Digital First Aid Kit came about when a number of organizations working in the digital emergency field observed that once a person is targeted digitally, he or she often does not know what to do or where to turn for assistance. It was inspired by the belief that everyone has the ability to take preventative measures to avoid emergencies and responsive steps when they are in trouble. Further, everyone has the ability to help out a colleague facing trouble. The self-diagnostic quality of the Kit should also enable journalists, bloggers, activists and human rights defenders to understand what is happening to their digital assets, to be able to determine more rapidly when they should reach out for help, what kind of help they need, and improve individual digital safety. In addition, the Kit serves as a first responder checklist for individuals who a person under possible digital attack reaches out to first.

The Digital First Aid Kit is a collaborative effort of EFF, Global Voices, Hivos & the Digital Defenders Partnership, Front Line Defenders, Internews, Freedom House, Access, Virtual Road, CIRCL, IWPR, Open Technology Fund and individual security experts who are working in the field of digital security and rapid response. It is a work in progress and if there are things that need to be added, comments or questions regarding any of the sections please open a bug or do a pull request.

• How to get help! (Read this section first on how to communicate securely with others, and where you can get help)
• Has your account been hijacked? (Are you locked out of your account? Seeing unusual activity?)
• Has your phone or laptop been taken from you? (Was it taken out of your sight at a security checkpoint? Stolen/siezed? Has it been returned?)
• Does your computer have malware? (Is your computer acting suspicious?)
• Is your website under attack? (Is your site down? Has it been defaced?)

See also:

• Glossary of terms
• Further Reading and Resources