Report on meeting 4 Nov 2026: doing community-based digital security education

We recently held a small call as an experiment in getting started. A handful of activists with digital security backgrounds, from different parts of the movement, joined. It wasn't a big event, but it was a useful first step. Names and identifying details are left out to keep people safe.

The problem

The threats facing community organisations are real and varied, from the state to the far right. Yet conversations about risk are often confused or fearful. People worry about the wrong things, swing between paranoia and "what's the point?", and pull back from action and solidarity.

Meanwhile, very few people do this support work, so the knowledge stays stuck with a few specialists.

The idea

We want to see how activists who have digital security knowledge might turn out towards community organisations they already know, and how that work could be backed by a national network. Activists can bring three things:

Technical knowledge to answer practical questions.
A political read of threats, to tell which measures matter and which are just theatre.
A network, so there is always someone to ask.

Our approach draws on popular education and abolitionist politics. That means working through problems together rather than lecturing, and reducing harm step by step rather than demanding perfect security.

What we talked about

We shared a case study: our work with a women's centre, which happened through an invitation and three workshops — still ongoing. People asked how much time it took (quite a lot) and whether it was worth it. Someone raised the frustration of pro-Palestine groups still organising on Google tools.

One participant summed up why this matters:

"Some organisations, even though they're not as politicised as groups like anti-fascist networks, are a target just because they support people demonised by the state and the far right, such as asylum seekers and refugees. So it's important to make this information accessible. And what counts as 'politicised' is subjective anyway."

We agreed on a few things. Go to the groups that need help most, such as migrant support groups and mosques. Drop the jargon. Don't assume the expertise sits only with us. We were also honest that this is a lot of responsibility, and keeping it going takes capacity.

Who else is doing this?

We want to hear from anyone already doing community-based digital security education this way, or trying to.

Our work with the women's centre was less about delivering training and more about opening up discussion. We wanted staff and volunteers to talk through their own risks in their own words, and decide together what mattered. A few principles have guided us:

Start from the group's goals. Security should make a group's work possible, not shrink what it dares to plan.
Everyone is an expert in something. Tech people are experts in tech; community members are experts in their own organising. What helps most is being honest about what you don't know, searching together for the real security question, and enabling good conversation so people can make their own decisions.
Reduce harm step by step. Good enough security that people actually use beats perfect security they abandon.
Learn from practice. Theory lands best once people have real experience to connect it to.

If that sounds like your work, or work you'd like to do, we'd love to compare notes and invite you to show-and-tell at a future meeting, or to contribute to this site.

What's next

Ongoing calls. Next up: Friday 13 November 2026, midday: on building local affinity groups and community-based work. Email [email protected] for the call link.
A Signal group for anyone trying this out.
Reports on this site, and potentially a zine about doing community-based digital security work.

Get involved

If you have security skills and a link to a community organisation, or you'd like help finding one, we'd love to hear from you. Email [email protected] to join the next call or the Signal group.

The problem

Meanwhile, very few people do this support work, so the knowledge stays stuck with a few specialists.

The idea

Technical knowledge to answer practical questions.

A political read of threats, to tell which measures matter and which are just theatre.

A network, so there is always someone to ask.

What we talked about

One participant summed up why this matters:

"Some organisations, even though they're not as politicised as groups like anti-fascist networks, are a target just because they support people demonised by the state and the far right, such as asylum seekers and refugees. So it's important to make this information accessible. And what counts as 'politicised' is subjective anyway."

Who else is doing this?

We want to hear from anyone already doing community-based digital security education this way, or trying to.

Start from the group's goals. Security should make a group's work possible, not shrink what it dares to plan.

Everyone is an expert in something. Tech people are experts in tech; community members are experts in their own organising. What helps most is being honest about what you don't know, searching together for the real security question, and enabling good conversation so people can make their own decisions.

Reduce harm step by step. Good enough security that people actually use beats perfect security they abandon.

Learn from practice. Theory lands best once people have real experience to connect it to.

If that sounds like your work, or work you'd like to do, we'd love to compare notes and invite you to show-and-tell at a future meeting, or to contribute to this site.