No one should have to defend civil society alone.

NGO-ISAC is the digital security community for U.S. civil society: more than 500 organizations sharing what they see, learning from one another, and standing together against the threats that seek to deny, disrupt, or degrade their essential work.

Why we exist

The organizations that do the most important work in this country are among the least protected. Human rights groups, newsrooms, democracy and election organizations, relief agencies, community nonprofits: they are watched, phished, impersonated, and attacked by adversaries with far more resources than they have. Most face it with a security team of one, or none. Too many face it alone.

That is a security problem, and it has a solution. When one organization is hit, every other organization should learn from it the same day. When something looks wrong, there should be a trusted community to ask. When an adversary targets civil society, civil society should be able to answer as one. That is what an Information Sharing and Analysis Center does, and NGO-ISAC is the only one dedicated to the U.S. nonprofit sector.

How we started

NGO-ISAC was started in 2016 by security practitioners inside civil society who were tired of fighting the same attackers separately. Banks had an ISAC. Hospitals had one. Nonprofits, which are targeted by the same nation-state actors and criminals, had nothing. So the people defending foundations, advocacy groups, and humanitarian organizations built one for themselves. It began as a handful of practitioners comparing notes, run by volunteers for its first seven years. Today it is a professionally staffed organization serving more than 500 member organizations, backed by more than 80 technology partners.

What we do

• We share threats. Members report what they see. Our analysts turn it into weekly threat briefings written for civil society, in plain language, so a two-person team knows on Tuesday what a well-resourced adversary did on Monday.
• We build community. A trusted network where the person defending a human rights group in Chicago can ask the person defending a newsroom in New York what they did when the same phishing kit showed up, and get an answer in minutes.
• We teach and coach. Hands-on training series, one-on-one coaching for security teams of any size, and an annual conference that brings the community together in person every year.

“NGO-ISAC has provided immense value to our organization by reducing digital risk through shared expertise, actionable intelligence, and advice, all within a collaborative community.”

Leadership, Veterans Support NGO, member organization

When it counts

In October 2024, Microsoft filed a civil action together with NGO-ISAC against Star Blizzard, a threat group linked to Russia’s Federal Security Service that had spent nearly two years spear-phishing more than 30 civil society organizations, including journalists, think tanks, and nonprofits. The court order let Microsoft seize 66 of the group’s domains; the U.S. Department of Justice seized 41 more. It was the first time a civil society threat-sharing community stood as a party to an action like that, and it happened because our members had been comparing notes on the same attacker for months. Read Microsoft’s account.

We work alongside Microsoft, Google, Cloudflare, Okta, and a growing list of technology partners who see what we see: that protecting civil society is part of protecting everyone. We are a member of NetHope, and we work with government agencies and peer ISACs to bring the best available protection to the organizations that need it most.

Stand with us

If you run a U.S. nonprofit or civil society organization, you belong here, whatever the size of your team. If you are a technology company, a funder, or a peer organization that wants civil society to be safer, we would like to work with you.