Canada’s refusal to bid for the Internet Governance Forum 2024: a missed opportunity for the country and global civil society
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) plays a vital role in shaping the future of the internet, fostering international cooperation, and addressing the various challenges that arise in the digital age. In recent months, many Canadians organizations were having high hopes of hosting the IGF in Montreal in 2024. Led by eQualitie, envisioning it as a […]
Ukraine Deserves to Win. Nobel Peace Prize Laureates To Send a Powerful Message to the US Government
From July 25 to 28, 2023, a delegation of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia will hold meetings with senior US government officials, delivering a message of unwavering support for Ukraine. The visit, initiated and supported by eQualitie will take place in Washington DC in partnership with the National Endowment […]
How decentralization saved the Ukrainian internet: lessons from 2022, government officials and telecom industry reflect in Kyiv
The Ukrainian telecoms market incurred $2.3B in losses during the initial year of the invasion, per the World Bank. Key stakeholders, including industry leaders, government officials, and international partners, gathered in Kyiv for the “Ukraine: Communications and Internet Resilience during War” conference on May 26, 2023. Organized by eQualitie and Internews Ukraine, the event focused […]
Donate to Keep Ukrainians online
Since October 2022, Russia has been targeting critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine with its missiles and drones. Attacks have degraded electricity generation and distribution, cutting off power and thereby heating, water treatment and Internet connectivity for millions of people. Rolling electricity blackouts lasting anywhere from several hours to days are making this brutal conflict even harsher. Even if the war was to stop tomorrow, damage to electricity power plants and distribution networks will persist.
A year in review: eQualitie’s reactions to the war in Ukraine
Since the beginning of the second invasion in February 2022, eQualitie has launched a series of rapid efforts focusing on digital security capacity building and urgent response to various communication and safety needs of Ukrainian citizens, media agencies, human rights organizations, and CSOs. A lot of the focus of our existing programming on web security […]
Keeping Ukrainians online during electricity outages
A cargo weighing 6,600 kg as humanitarian aid arrived in Ukraine from Poland, where eQualitie purchased a series of batteries donated for Ukrainian ISPs. Each battery weighing 38 kg will be installed on the fibre optic and distribution networks of local Internet providers, allowing them to power their networks for an additional 10-12 hours through the electricity outages. This batch of donations has a total capacity of 20,640 Amps or 247 kWh. - helping more Ukrainians access the Internet without interruption.
Launching the Ukrainian digital security helpline – Nadiyno
On 8th of November 2022, eQualitie and Internews Ukraine are launching nadiyno.org – the first national digital security helpline in Ukraine, for responding to any and all questions from the public relating to cyber security. We have assembled and trained a dedicated team of helpline support staff and digital experts, stood up systems to document […]
eQualitie launches CENO, world’s first decentralized p2p mobile browser
CENO Browser lets anyone access and share information in areas with censored communications Montreal, May 10, 2022 – eQualitie, developer of open-source and reusable digital security systems, is pleased to announce the public launch of its newest democratization tool, CENO Browser. Short for censorship.no, CENO is the world’s first mobile browser that is built specifically […]
eQualitie’s position on the war in Ukraine
We choose to stand with Ukrainians who are defending their homes and families. We mourn the lives already lost and the destruction of Ukrainian cities and its cultural heritage.
IGF 2024 in Montreal
Join eQualitie in encouraging the government of Canada to invite the IGF Secretariat to Montreal in 2024.
Introducing Baskerville (waf!)
Baskerville is a machine operating on the Deflect network that protects sites from hounding, malicious bots. It's also an open source project that, in time, will be able to reduce bad behaviour on your networks too.
eQ offers Deflect website security services for free in response to COVID-19
In response and solidarity with numerous efforts that have sprung up to help with communications, coordination and outreach during the COVID-19 epidemic, eQualitie is offering Deflect website security and content delivery services for free until the end of 2020 to organizations and individuals working to help others during this difficult time.
Web Security Fellowship – project review
Launched in early 2019, the Web Security Fellowship was a pilot project for eQualitie to introduce more IT professionals to the ranks of active civil society organizations. Eight fellows were selected from a public application process for a six-month placement within host organizations, comprising of human rights and independent media groups in Russia. The fellowship […]
Deflect – Taking Care of Business
For eight eventful years, Deflect has specialized in defending high-profile human rights and independent news groups, delivering their websites to over a million daily readers and confounding the aims of state-sponsored hacking teams trying to silence them.
News from Deflect Labs: DDoS attacks against Caucasian Knot
Key Findings In November and December 2018, we identified 3 DDoS attacks against independent media website Кавказский Узел (Caucasian Knot) The first attack was by far the largest DDoS attack seen by the Deflect project in 2018, clocking over 7.7 million queries in 4 hours The three attacks used different types of relays, including open […]
Infracon 2019 – Barcelona
Open Day The Infracon Open Day invites technology groups, NGOs, organized civil society and media in Barcelona to discuss technology solutions for self-determination and autonomy on the Internet. Register your participation below! Infracon – is a global conference for independent Internet service providers working on solutions for autonomous infrastructure. eQualitie and Pangea are bringing together […]
Deflect y eQPress
Sobre Deflect El proyecto Deflect es un servicio que disminuye las afectaciones de un “Distributed Denial of Service” o Ataques distribuidos de denegación de servicio (DDoS). DDoS se refiere al intento de hacer un aparato o red (network) no disponible para el usuario. Deflect neutraliza los cyberattacks contra medios independientes y defensores de derechos humanos. […]
Introducing (n+1)sec – a protocol for distributed multiparty chat encryption
Today we present (n+1)sec, a free (libre), end-to-end secure, synchronous protocol for group chat developed by eQualit.ie with support from the Open Technology Fund. After 2 years of design, development and testing, we are releasing the (n+1)sec protocol and library for securing group conversations on various messaging systems, like Jabber/XMPP or IRC. Following a protocol and […]
Distributed Deflect – project review
This is the fifth year of Deflect operations and an opportune time to draw some conclusions from the past and provide a round of feedback to our many users and peers. We fought and won several hundred battles with various distributed denial of service and social engineering attacks against us and our clients, expanding the […]
Deflect Labs report #3
Botnet attack analysis of Deflect protected website blacklivesmatter.com Seamus Tuohy and eQualit.ie View the report with 3D rendering (5mb) This report covers attacks between April 29th and October 15th, 2016. Over this seven-month period, we recorded more than a hundred separate denial-of-service incidents against the official Black Lives Matter website. Our analysis shows a variety […]
TA3M, December 19th – the Cryptmas edition
Our techno activism 3rd Mondays events are back! This time with a focus on mobile security and anonymity. As recent reporting highlighted once again the dangers to personal privacy from modern day surveillance, we are offering an overview of current possibilities for improving your mobile privacy, just in time for Christmas! We will discuss: – […]
Deflect Labs Report #2
Botnet attack analysis of Deflect protected website bdsmovement.net This report covers attacks between February 1st and March 31st of six discovered incidents targeting the bdsmovement.net website, including methods of attack, identified botnets and their characteristics. It provides detailed technical information and analysis of trends with the introduction of the Bothound library for attack fingerprinting and […]
Deflect Stats April 2016
April 2016 was noticeable for the amount of attacks launched against Deflect protected websites. Most of them were using the WordPress Pingback reflective attack method. Ukrainian readers topped our statistics this month, with readers from the United States, Ecuador and Russia also generating several million daily hits. An interesting set of data […]
TA3M APRIL ’16 – a Basic Internet Service in Canada?
Should Canada do more to encourage broadband adoption? The CRTC is currently debating whether to define a basic Internet service and whether to subsidize Internet access to rural, remote or low income communities. For people interested in the information superhighway, this hearing is when the rubber hits the road. Concordia professor Fenwick McKelvey will introduce […]
Deflect stats March 2016
This is the first in a monthly series of posts sharing and discussing statistics on the Deflect network. March 2016 was a busy month for us. We began to publish analytic reports on DDoS attacks against some of the clients we protect on the network. Our aim is to help the target’s advocacy efforts and […]
Deflect Labs – fighting impunity with analytics and advocacy
For the last four years, the Deflect DDoS mitigation system has protected independent online voices from the onslaught of cyber-attacks aiming to silence them. We have grown, learning our lessons as we took the punches. One aspect of this work stood out as particularly interesting during this time: there were stories to be told in […]
TA3M MARCH ’16 “WHO BYTES YOUR BITS”
We’re all familiar with the idea of a search warrant — but how else can the government access your private information in Canada? This informal TA3M workshop will explore this question—whether in the context of a criminal investigation or otherwise. We’ll also discuss the implications for businesses and organizations that hold private data for their […]
CryptoClasses – encryption for the masses!
In 2016 eQualit.ie is relaunching the Techno Activism 3rd Monday (TA3M) events in Montreal. To celebrate this occasion we are offering the inaugural Crypto Class – a rotating smörgåsbord of local digital security experts teaching the public about encryption. This will be a free event concentrating on practical skills and knowledge about encrypting (and decrypting) […]
np1sec challenge
The challenge involve partially implementing some of our XMPP test client event handlers for namely join, receive and send. The result will be a client that people can use to join and chat securely. Note that the purpose of the challenge is for the EQ team to get to know the candidates and be comfortable […]
Be the (Web) Master of your own (Secret) Domain
We are very pleased to announce that all websites signing up for DDoS protection with Deflect will now receive an authenticated password giving them easy access to their admin panel without having to reconfigure settings on their host server. In the past, our practice has always been to set up a special secret login address […]
Creating a Hosts File Entry
If you wish to access your domain before your DNS has been updated, you can update your local ‘hosts file’, which will allow your computer to view your new site. Follow the appropriate instructions below. Please note that this will work only with HTTPS and not with HTTP. If you need any help with this procedure […]
Project Motivator and Magical Manager
Job Location: Montreal-Quebec-Canada (flexible) Job Type: Full-Time Salary Range: senior level, based on experience Posting Date: 23-July-2015 Deadline for Applications: 15-August-2015 eQualit.ie is seeking an enthusiastic person to fill the shoes of a project manager at our small (but growing) organisation. This is a relatively fast-paced environment with a strong sense of individual contribution and close-knit […]
Migrating Your WordPress Site to Us
If you already have a working WordPress site that you wish to move to eQPress, the first thing you need to do is sign up with Deflect and specify that you would like to move your existing website to eQPress, providing us with the first and last name of your admin (they don’t have to […]
How to Flush Your Local DNS Resolver’s Cache
If your computer cannot reach a certain website this could be because your local DNS resolver’s cache contains an outdated record. For example, you updated your DNS records to point to eQPress but instead you are seeing your old website. This is when flushing your DNS cache will speed things up. Mac (OS X) In […]
Deflect – 2014 in numbers
The Deflect projects protects human rights and independent media websites from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It is a free service for qualifying organisations and the source code is publicly available on the project wiki. In our third year of operations we protected websites from over 60 countries and present herein some interesting facts […]
(n+1)sec = privacy on the Net
In advance of this year’s Human Rights Day, eQualit.ie is proud to release the first public draft of a provably secure protocol for group messaging on the Internet. The protocol provides for end-to-end security of synchronous communications between any number of people. It is efficient and builds on recent advancements in cryptographic research. Security properties of (n+1)sec include: Confidentiality: the […]
Moving Your Site to HTTPS
HTTPS (adding an S for “secure” to HTTP) is an internet communication protocol that protects your users’ connections to your website. Data sent using HTTPS is secured in that HTTPS provides 3 layers of protection: Encryption: while the user is browsing a website, nobody can see their conversations, track their activities in the website, or […]
Recommendations for Improving Your WordPress SEO
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), choosing the right WordPress theme framework becomes critical. Genesis does a great job of doing all the right things for search engine optimization (SEO). You will want to add some kind of analytics tracking to your site so you can gain insight about who is visiting your […]
Choosing a Canonical Website Address
Canoni-what? Canonical is the word used to describe the one address that you want the world to go to when they look you up. The typical choices are whether to use www in front of your domain or not. The classic example follows: http://www.example.com/ or http://example.com/ Choosing what your canonical website address (URL) will be […]
Standing strong in August
Ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East saw a stream of independent media and human rights organizations turn to Deflect for DDoS protection. The network delivered over 75 million pages to legitimate readers in August, our highest numbers to date. One week in particular stood out as we brought on-board two websites in the midst of ongoing DDoS […]
Secure Hosting Guide available now
We are pleased to announce the launch of our Secure Hosting Guide, available now on learn.equalit.ie. The guide has been produced in collaboration with our friends at Huridocs and will be useful for anyone who wants to know the key factors involved when looking for a good hosting provider. It has been written for users […]
DDoS mitigation on a network of principles and openness
Yesterday saw the public launch of Project Galileo, a CloudFlare initiative that partners with reputable international advocacy and civil society organizations to offer free DDoS mitigation services to human rights and independent media groups. As with our support for Google’s Project Shield last year, we welcome all attempts to bring DDoS mitigation to a wider […]
Take Back The Net!
This week eQualitie will be attending Take Back The Net, a two-day conference in which “human rights advocates and transformative technology providers will meet to discuss what civil society organisations and individuals can do to restore trust in communication infrastructure”. We are attending as guests of the Association of Progressive Communications, organisers of the conference […]
Training in the Ukraine
eQualit.ie undertook two missions during the last month to work with independent media workers and aspiring digital security trainers from across the Ukraine. Over one hundred news media workers were trained in secure communications and a very capable group of future trainers were taken through the advanced training so that this valuable knowledge can continue […]
Sweden gets eQualitie
Last week eQualitie attended the Stockholm Internet Forum 2014, an annual gathering of multi-stakeholders from internet governance, global civil society, freedom of expression networks, independent media and even some progressive-minded government types. We spent three days meeting with activists, journalists and policy makers to listen to their concerns and discuss the best ways forward for […]
Feeling Insecure? Try some Digital Self-Help
We’re launching a free guide for teaching yourself Digital Security which can be accessed right here. Over the last 8 years, eQualitie has been leading Digital Security trainings in dozens of countries for hundreds of activists and journalists, as well building two Digital Security schools and training many others to become trainers themselves. Every year […]
Mid-May in Tunisia
We are in Tunis this week leading a series of “training of trainers” sessions at DSS 216 , the Digital Security School set up by eQualitie in conjunction with our friends at Alternatives, the long-established Montreal NGO. The school is staffed by co-ordinators from across the Middle East and North Africa and operates in Arabic […]
Q1 2014 Traffic Report: DDoStoyevsky’s Crimean Punishment
In the last 12 months we have seen steady growth in many aspects of the Deflect project, particularly with respect to membership, traffic, localisation and network capacity. The most significant contributing factors have been the uptake of more partners, the efficacy of our new banning software and the continued rise in DDoS attacks as a […]
DBP: Our Philosophy
The Deflect team has spent the last two years mitigating DDoS attacks against independent media and human rights websites. We’ve learnt a thing or two along the way and have put a lot of effort into developing open source software to make our lives (and weekends) a bit easier. The BotnetDBP project consists of four […]
Changing Your Database Password
We are serious about our passwords here at Deflect. You might have noticed our 23 random character passwords for your WordPress admin user we generated during the installation of your site. That’s the kind of password that will keep your site safe from brute force and dictionary attacks. The random.org site provides some tools for […]
First Steps with Your eQPress Site
Your shiny new eQPress site is ready to go! Now what? Here are some recommendations. Enable “pretty” permalinks under “Settings” -> “Permalinks”. Typically “Post name” is a good option, but you can choose whichever setting you prefer other than “Plain”. The reason for doing this is two-fold: on the one hand, your URLs just look […]
The Best Options for Email Subscriptions with WordPress
The best option is to use MailChimp to manage your subscriber lists and also to send the emails. There are plugins that can integrate with your MailChimp account but even that is unnecessary if all you want is to add email addresses and then send emails when you write a new blog post. The way […]
Deflect Labs Report #3 (3D rendering)
Botnet attack analysis of Deflect protected website blacklivesmatter.com Seamus Tuohy and eQualit.ie This report covers attacks between April 29th and October 15th, 2016. Over this seven-month period, we recorded more than a hundred separate denial-of-service incidents against the official Black Lives Matter website. Our analysis shows a variety of technical methods used in attempts to […]
Creating Your New WordPress Site
Whether you are a first time WordPress user or not you may need to build your new site while your existing site continues to run. If you immediately update your DNS settings to point to eQPress without having migrated your website yet, what you’ll see is a default installation of WordPress. That’s probably not what […]
Learning WordPress
Here are some great resources for learning how to use WordPress. The Official WordPress User Manual – https://make.wordpress.org/support/user-manual/ This is a living document created and maintained by the amazing and dedicated WordPress.org team. Easy WP Guide – https://easywpguide.com/ You won’t find any talk of HTML, PHP or creating WP Themes here. What you will find […]
Restricting Access to Your Website
There are times when you want to prevent the world from seeing your website. One reason might be that you are in the process of designing and developing and don’t want to share your progress with the world, since it might not be ready for all eyes. Another reason might be that you only want […]
Removing the WordPress admin User
Brute-force login attempts are typically carried out against the “admin” user. “Admin” used to be the default username of the first administrator created when installing WordPress, but now the installation asks you what you want to name it, and on eQPress it will be your administrator’s name and surname (not necessarily the “official” ones!). If […]
Protecting Your WordPress Website
Hosted behind the Deflect network, eQPress is designed to prevent your site from getting attacked or hacked. Security is best practiced as a series of countermeasures against known vulnerabilities or threats. We provide the essential underlying protective layers and the rest is up to you. There is no protection against a weak password, so… The […]
Debugging the Dreaded “White Screen of Death”
If you are here because you recently installed a plugin, then take a look at this flow chart. Both PHP errors and database errors can manifest as a white screen, a blank screen with no information, commonly known in the WordPress community as the WordPress White Screen of Death (WSOD). Here are some basic steps […]
Can I get my own IP?
Yes, if you require your own IP address you can purchase one for $10 per month.
How often is my site backed up?
Backup are important so we take a multi-layered approach. The first is an enterprise level solution which encrypts all data and transfers the archives to Amazons S3. We retain 30 daily backups, and 15 weekly backups which will allow you to restore from archives that are up to 3 months old. The next layer of […]
When will my WordPress core get updated?
WordPress periodically releases maintenance updates. These are typically for significant bug fixes or security issues. Since these upgrades might have security implications, and because WordPress’s popularity makes it susceptible to an exploit being quickly released, we attempt to apply these upgrades as quickly as possible. Here’s what the different versions look like: Major release: 4.1 […]
Antispam Recommendations
Spam is a bummer, as we’re sure most of you agree. Here are some antispam tools we’ve personally used. This first one is great. Anti-spam Pros super simple, no configuration integrates seamlessly with any theme free So far no cons. Crazy, right? Another strategy is to use 2 plugins together. For example, we’ve had excellent […]