When Cyberattacks Target the Helpers: How Protect.ngo is Defending Frontline Nonprofits
Healthcare organizations, food banks, women’s shelters, human rights groups, and democracy-focused nonprofits are doing some of the most essential work in our communities, yet they are frequent targets of cyberattacks.
Civil society groups are facing coordinated, persistent, and evolving digital hybrid threats, including sophisticated cyberattacks, information manipulation, and AI-enabled tactics like deepfakes, that target organizations often lacking the financial resources or technical capacity to respond, potentially disrupting essential services or putting lives at risk.
This is the gap that Protect.ngo is working to close, with support from the Common Good Cyber Fund (CGCF) Grant Program, by helping frontline nonprofits defend against cyberattacks.
By providing free, high-quality cybersecurity support, Protect.ngo (formerly known as CyberPeace Institute) enables rapid, direct responses to cyber incidents affecting frontline organizations. They also document the real-world harm caused by cyberattacks and information manipulation, advocate against the misuse of artificial intelligence, and promote its responsible development.
Protect.ngo was selected as a CGCF pilot grantee in late 2025. The grant provides flexible support for its operations, helping the organization sustain and expand free cybersecurity services and develop partnerships that can extend protection to more nonprofits.
A global network of volunteer expertise
At the center of Protect.ngo’s response is Cyber Builders, a program that connects a global community of cybersecurity experts with the civil society organizations that need them most.
The program gives nonprofits access to practical support, from assessing website vulnerabilities to developing cybersecurity policies, that resource constraints might otherwise make out of reach. As threats become more sophisticated, Cyber Builders is evolving too: Protect.ngo is strengthening its ability to monitor and respond to threats across civil society, exploring how AI can help identify and address them faster, and working to disrupt threats that affect multiple organizations at once.
Protect.ngo reports that its network now includes more than 1,800 expert volunteers and supports more than 700 nonprofits. And the value is significant in 2025 alone, before its CGCF funding began, Cyber Builders delivered up to USD $9.5 million in pro bono cybersecurity services. That track record illustrates the capacity the fund is helping sustain and expand.
According to the organization, the numbers behind the mission are revelatory, and the results have been substantial. In the first nine months of 2026, Cyber Builders has continued its expansion, onboarding 359 new volunteers and 138 additional nonprofits. These cyber experts have delivered 237 missions to 110 nonprofits, representing 780 volunteer hours.
The program’s existing beneficiary feedback helps understand what access to that expertise can mean. A Swiss nonprofit, beneficiary of the Cyber Builders program, explained: “As a small NPO (non-profit organization), we aren’t able to allocate resources towards cyber security: our priority is being able to support cancer patients. Thanks to the Builders, we were able to take simple steps towards improving our cybersecurity and were supported by professionals along the way, for free.”
For many small organizations, cybersecurity simply isn’t something they can prioritize on their own. A beneficiary in South Africa called the program “a lifesaver for my organization and me. We have been able to get support from experts at no fee, and this has helped improve our defenses.” In Nigeria, one beneficiary shared that they “benefited a lot from this program, fortifying our digital presence and putting response policies in place in case of a cyberattack.”
Scaling beyond the organization: building an ecosystem
CGCF’s flexible funding also helps Protect.ngo continue developing partnerships to deliver cybersecurity support to groups of organizations simultaneously.
In The Hague, Protect.ngo has built a model for local, grassroots protection: “We established a ‘Local Hub’ to secure 200 local community organizations, including food banks and women’s shelters. By mobilizing local government and private-sector expertise, the initiative created a replicable model for building grassroots digital safety nets in cities worldwide,” said Stéphane Duguin, CEO of Protect.ngo.
Protect.ngo is also working through philanthropic networks to help foundations build cybersecurity protections directly into how they fund grantees. That approach already supports women’s reproductive health organizations in the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as the European Climate Foundation’s grantee portfolio.
Protecting the protectors
Protect.ngo‘s work illustrates the rationale for the Common Good Cyber Fund: organizations providing cybersecurity for the public good need sustained support to keep that protection available, while continually adapting to new threats and technologies.
“For a nonprofit providing essential services, access to cybersecurity expertise can be difficult to afford,” said Christopher Burns, vice president of philanthropy at the Internet Society Foundation. “Through the Common Good Cyber Fund, donors and partners are helping organizations like Protect.ngo sustain that expertise and make it available to more nonprofits. That support helps protect both the organizations and the people who rely on them.”
The Common Good Cyber Fund (CGCF) consists of pooled donations from a mix of donors, including the governments of Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, as well as Craig Newmark Philanthropies and the Internet Society. To ensure the fund remains responsive to evolving threats, it also receives strategic advice and technical guidance from a Strategic Advisory Committee chaired by the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA).
The CGCF was launched in 2025 as a global initiative to strengthen cybersecurity for the public good. It provides multi-year funding to nonprofit organizations that deliver critical cybersecurity services to protect high-risk civil society actors and maintain the Internet’s core cybersecurity infrastructure.
The fund contributes to the Internet Society’s Safer Internet Initiative, a broader effort to help people use the Internet safely and securely.
Explore our Funding Areas to see how we support the global Internet community, and subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news and announcements from our projects.