Google and Jigsaw launching safeguarding tools for Kenya election

Google and Jigsaw launching safeguarding tools for Kenya election

On growing concerns of corruption in Kenya's next month elections, Google together with Jigsaw, its sister Incubator company have launched a set of tools which it hopes will help secure Kenyan media during the election period.

Focussing on news agencies, human rights groups and election monitoring sites, the free 'protect your election' suite is designed to protect from various online attacks including hacking, distributed denial of service (DDoS) and phishing.

Among the string is a DDoS protection tool called 'Project shield' which offers digital protection with a browser extension called 'Password alert,' alerting media sites during phishing attempts.

Another is a browser two-step-verification tool which affords a second layer of security when users access their accounts. The Chrome and Firefox tool is a browser extension called 'uProxy', allowing users to access the Internet via a Web proxy. The tools also include a virtual private network (VPN), designed in case the government decides to censor social-media.

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