solely for journalists.
For example, DDoS attacks continue
to be a major issue for publishers,
election officials, and non-governmental
organizations. After exploring the
attack landscape around the world, a
collaboration between Google Ideas and
Arbor Networks built a data-visualization
tool called Digital Attack Map (http://
www.digitalattackmap.com/). It visually
highlights all DDoS attacks worldwide,
revealing to even non-technologically
minded people the scope of DDoS as
a global problem. Armed with Google
technical support, Jigsaw has gained
Independent investigative cybercrime journalist Brian Krebs reported in September 2016 about a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on his website http://krebsonsecurity.com/ that was more than twice the size of the largest attack Akamai, Krebs’s pro bono content delivery network service provider, had previously encountered. Jigsaw’s Project
Shield, a free service Jigsaw describes as using “Google technology to protect news sites and
freedom of expression from DDoS attacks online” stepped in when Akamai, for technical
reasons, could no longer support Krebs.
When threatened, independent journalists need a way to continue to function with
integrity. Jigsaw and like-minded organizations help individuals and organizations unable
to protect themselves due to the overwhelming nature of the threats. That
help is made possible because Jigsaw
has the technical know-how to create a
technology platform that can address
such problems.
The following interview has been
condensed and edited for clarity.
XRDS: How did Jigsaw emerge from
Google?
DAN KE YSERLING (DK): Jigsaw was
founded in 2010, calling itself Google
Ideas until February 2016. Its evolution
since then reflects the world’s changing
circumstances. Though it started as a
research organization, it is now more of an
engineering organization with some of the
brightest minds in AI research, machine
learning, and other specialties. They
pursue technically complex questions,
in addition to complex geopolitical
challenges.
What challenges?
DK: We are all keenly aware of what
it means when press freedoms begin to
erode. Jigsaw’s Unfiltered News news-visualization tool (https://unfiltered.
news/#/2017/02/08/us) covers news that
might not other wise be covered in some
countries, though it was not designed
Dan Keyserling, head of communications at Jigsaw, an incubator
within Alphabet, shares how technology can help address
global challenges, especially on the front lines of press freedom,
political repression, and human rights.
By Nidhi Rastogi
DOI: 10.1145/3055517
Online Censorship,
Cyberattacks, and
Access to Information