This newsletter is a free publication by the Institute for Secure Activism (ISA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting personal security for civil rights, human rights, and social justice activists. We believe that technology should work for activists, and that we can actively limit governments from using technology to suppress activism. We focus on individuals who advocate for LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, immigrant and other marginalized communities. We provide hands-on training, instructional guides, and direct consultations to help people in civil society organizations protect themselves and their connections. Please consider making a tax-exempt donation to support our mission.
Security News for Activists 3 February 2026
Welcome back to the Security News for Activists newsletter! We took an unintended break in January. Between the end-of-year holidays and all the work that goes into a start-up nonprofit, the month just slipped by! Let’s get back into it.
Call to Action: Signal is Down! Create a PACE Plan
Most every activist I’ve ever encountered uses Signal. It’s incredibly powerful and quite secure (as long as you’re careful who you add to your chat). And it was down for at least 20 minutes today! Imagine if that outage had lasted a day, a week, a month? It’s certainly technically possible for the US Government (or other world governments) to take down the Signal servers. What will we do then?
I encourage you to see this outage as a wake-up call: make a PACE plan! When we talk about communications plans, PACE stands for Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency. The best kinds of PACE plans involve different kinds of technology i.e. not just four different apps on your phone. Remember when parts of the Verizon network went down a few weeks ago? Or that time you dropped your phone so badly that the cracks in the screen seemed somehow to be cracks in your sanity?
There are lots of different options available for the four components of a PACE plan, so maybe we’ll dedicate an upcoming newsletter entirely to PACE! In the meantime: make a plan, make ANY plan. Because you never know which critical tech is going to fail next.
Your Call to Action: Create a PACE plan!
New Activist Checklist for ICE Watchers
I had the opportunity to provide some pre-publication input into the newest checklist on ActivistChecklist.org, the ICE Watch Digital Security checklist. This publication is for “anyone observing ICE’s activities to hold them accountable: filming, foot patrols, adopt-a-corner, or rapid response.” I think this checklist accurately captures the digital security risks associated with ICE watch activities and I highly recommend it. ActivistChecklist.org has a number of comprehensive, accessible checklists including Security Essentials, Signal Security, Prepare for a Protest, and much more. Take some time to look at their website and work through those checklists which apply to you.
Big Tech is Censoring Your Feed
In 2025 for the first time social media overtook television news as the primary source of news for most Americans. At the same time, Big Tech social media companies like Meta and X are intentionally manipulating our social media feeds more than ever before. This manipulation is either done directly by Meta and X, or enabled by these companies through the elimination of their moderation, anti-abuse, and anti-misinformation mechanisms. These companies also sometimes manipulate your social media feeds by completely denying access to individuals and organizations. For example, here is the result of my attempt to create an Instagram account for the Institute for Secure Activism:
There isn’t any explanation for this decision, not even in the links provided. There is no option to appeal, no customer service contact, nor any other redress. Meta has simply ruled that this content doesn’t belong on their platform, and that is final. So stay subscribed to this newsletter, because you won’t see us on The ‘Gram!
One of the most important things we can do as citizens of our republic is to commit ourselves to be informed. Cultivate your information consumption strategy. Always, ALWAYS remember that social media lies to you all day and every day, both through what it includes in your feed and also through what it EXCLUDES from your feed.
ICE Tracking Websites Hacked
The ICE activity tracking website StopICE.net has been hacked. It is likely that user registration information (at least email and password, and possibly IP address) of anyone who has logged into this site has been compromised.
I am in touch with multiple ICE watch groups in the DC area: they all have had long-standing policies that they do not put information into websites like StopICE.net, and that they take information from those kinds of websites (as well as social media generally) with a huge grain of salt.
Many of those websites are well-intentioned. However, at least one developer (of the now-blocked ICEBlock app) has no concept of basic secure software development principles and no apparent intention of learning them. Also, most of these websites appear to rely on an assumption that the reports of ICE activity made by their app’s users are factual and honest. The ICE watch groups I work with, however, choose not to make such assumptions.
Our Fundraising Campaign Continues: Equip ICE Rapid Responders!
We are continuing to raise funds to buy equipment for ICE Rapid Responders in the DC metro area. We’re trying to raise $5000 by February 20 to equip ICE Rapid Response teams in Northern Virginia with surveillance-resistant equipment including secure communications gear, secure body cameras and dashcams, and secondary cell phones, among other tools. We’re also planning to provide Stop The Bleed training and medical gear, because ICE’s murderous actions in Minneapolis have demonstrated that need.
Thank you!
As always, thanks for subscribing, send me your questions and comments, and please consider donating! We’re all in this together.
We take care of us, we keep our community safe, we look out for each other. Go do good work!
