Protecting
election information
from digital attacks

Free tools to help safeguard what you publish, when it matters most.

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Helping everyone get the full story

News matters. Elections matter. And during elections, news matters even more - it’s critical that everyone can get the full story.

It's easy for digital attacks, such as DDoS What is a DDoS attack? A DDoS attack is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. (distributed denial of service), unauthorised account access What is unauthorised account access? Unauthorised account access can happen when someone gets through the password layer of an account without the user’s permission. and phishing What is phishing? A phishing attack is when someone tries to trick you into sharing personal information online. to take websites offline and steal sensitive information.

Protect Your Election gives you tools to help you stay protected from these attacks.

How can Protect Your Election help?

If you run a site with election information

You can make sure that voters continue to have access to the information they need when they need it.

If you’re a journalist

You can strengthen the security on your account to keep your information safe.

If you run a news site

You can protect your election coverage from DDoS attacks that could take your site offline.

If you’re concerned about security online

You can add a security layer and password alert to your personal account.

Protection from digital attacks

DDoS attacks Unauthorised access Phishing attacks

Protect your website against DDoS attacks

A DDoS attack can take a website offline by overwhelming it with traffic. Project Shield is a free service that uses Google technology to help keep news and election sites protected.

Why you need Project Shield

A DDoS attack is a simple and inexpensive way to take a website offline. It can be used to target critical, investigative work, silence journalism and stop freedom of information during elections.

How it works

Thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of visits are sent to a site at the same time. Many sites don’t have protection against such an attack and might not know what’s causing the problem. Project Shield can mitigate that risk.

How it protects you

Project Shield acts as a layer of defence, blocking unwanted traffic that’s been sent to take your site down. It uses a reverse proxy to filter bad traffic on your site’s behalf, so attacks don’t even reach your website’s server.

Learn more about how to apply and if your site is eligible.

Apply now

Protect your account against unauthorised access

Stronger password security can help protect your Google account and everything in it. 2-Step Verification protects with both your password, and your phone or security key.

Why you need 2-Step Verification

If someone steals your password, they could lock you out of your account, delete your emails, contacts or photos, pretend to be you to send unwanted or harmful emails, or use your account to reset the passwords for your other accounts.

How it works

Signing into your account will work a little differently. After you enter your password, you’ll be asked for something else. A code will be sent to your phone via text, voice call, or generated via our mobile app. Or, if you have a Security Key, you can insert it into your computer’s USB port. Find out more about Security Keys.

How it protects you

Most people only have one layer - their password - to protect their account. With 2-Step Verification, if someone gets through your password layer they'll still need your phone or Security Key to get into your account.
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Protect your account against phishing attacks

A phishing attack is when someone tries to trick you into sharing personal information online. Password Alert helps detect and prevent these attacks.

How Password Alert works

If someone gets your password from a phishing attack, they can use it to access your account and other services. Password Alert is a free Chrome extension that checks each page you visit and alerts you if it looks like you’ve entered your Google Account password into anywhere other than Google's sign-in page.
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