Securing Crisis Maps in Conflict Zones

Crowd sourced crisis mapping technologies aggregate information from individuals, trusted networks of informants, and publicly available media sources for use in informing decision making and response. Deploying this technology in conflict zones introduces a new set of vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hostile actors who have developed or adopted network surveillance and attack capabilities. Successful infiltration or compromise of these deployments can have a significant, negative impact on the lives of those reporting to and operating crisis maps. This paper identifies several fundamental vulnerabilities present in crisis mapping deployments and defines a set of best practices to defend those vulnerabilities from successful attack. The recommendations are adapted from established principles in computer and network security, combined with the authors' experience operating crisis mapping deployments in Afghanistan, Sudan, and Libya.