Part 3 – Software Safety

Step 5: Explain to participants the risks of using pirated software (high likelihood of downloading malware, can’t regularly update in the same way as with licensed software, etc.); However, licensed software is also frequently quite expensive.
Osalt: http://www.osalt.com
Open a browser and navigate to Osalt – this is a website that presents free and open source alternatives to many major licensed software platforms and suites (for example, using Ubuntu instead of Windows; LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Word; Inkscape instead of Adobe Illustrator).
TechSoup | http://www.techsoupglobal.org/network
Via TechSoup, human rights activists and their organizations may be eligible to receive free, or heavily discounted, versions of commercial software: users may look for official distributors among local ICT service providers and request for a non-profit or public sector license discount. A large distribution network for donated software is run by TechSoup – the link above contains a list of partners and the countries in which they operate.

Step 6: Explain to participants the importance of keeping all their software updated – first and foremost, it protects against security vulnerabilities. All software and updates should only be downloaded from trusted sources; for example, when updating Adobe Acrobat Reader, one should only use updates downloaded directly from Adobe, not third-party websites.

Step 7: Next, explain to participants the importance of having an anti-virus program on their computers – provide some background that can help demystify some of the common myths related to anti-virus, such as:
•“Using two or more anti-virus programs offers more protection.”
•“Mac and Linux don’t need anti-virus software because they can’t get viruses.”
•“It’s perfectly safe to use a pirated version of anti-virus software.”
•“Free anti-virus programs are not as safe or reliable as paid programs.”
•“A physical firewall can be used to enhance security on the internet in offices of your organization.”

Step 8: Share these, along with any others that participants share with you – then, discuss some basic safe practices for using anti-virus software and protecting against malware (see Input session “Malware and Other Malicious Software”). Some useful ones to highlight here, in case you haven’t already covered them in the Malware & Viruses session in this module, are:

•Using the uBlock origin browser plug-in to avoid clicking on ads that might download malicious malware files onto their computer.
•Being aware of phishing attempts, suspicious links or attachments found within emails in particular, that appear to be sent from unknown accounts or from accounts that appear similar to those of trusted contacts.
•This is a good opportunity to mention firewalls – these offer an automated layer of protection in their computers. Share tools like Comodo Firewall, ZoneAlarm and Glasswire. Newer (licensed) versions of Windows and Mac OS also have robust firewalls already installed.