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More than 10 million nonprofits worldwide face cybersecurity threats, yet current support structures only reach a fraction of them. Common Good Cyber, with support from the UK FCDO and the European Union Institute for Security Studies, reviewed the cybersecurity tools, services, and platforms deployed in the public interest to secure networks, empower Internet users, and increase resilience across sectors.
The result of the review is a Common Good Cyber Mapping Database, which so far categorizes 334 public interest-driven cybersecurity tools, services, and platforms organized in six groups: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
These initiatives form a layer of defense for the broader digital commons, and yet their maintenance and deployment is disproportionately distributed among nonprofits, individuals, and volunteers with limited resources and budgets, according to Philip Reitinger, president and CEO of the Global Cyber Alliance, which formed the Common Good Cyber initiative.
“Organizations and people must navigate an increasingly dangerous digital landscape. Security should be fundamental and available to everyone like safe drinking water, but instead digital security is a daily struggle, managed by people and at-risk actors with help from resources provided by nonprofits with limited means themselves,” according to Reitinger. “Common Good Cyber is committed to changing this — improving security and resilience for everyone and supporting the cybersecurity-focused nonprofits that protect us all.”
Leaders at Common Good Cyber plan to establish a joint funding mechanism for nonprofit organizations that to protect organizations and the public by March 2026.
