When running a community engagement project, you need to consider how you will protect the information people share. Contact details, survey responses and personal stories all need to be handled carefully, from collection through to reporting.
Cybersecurity helps protect that information from theft, loss and unauthorised access. Common risks include phishing messages designed to steal login details and ransomware that prevents you from accessing your files.
In this article, we share six practical steps to help protect your community’s information, along with the security features available in Engagement Hub.
How Engagement Hub protects your platform
Our platform uses several layers of protection:
- Australian hosting: Our platform is hosted in Sydney using AWS infrastructure. AWS holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification and undergoes independent SOC examinations.
- Encryption: Data is encrypted in transit, at rest and in backups. Platform access uses HTTPS.
- Account protection: Administrators can enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for administrator and stakeholder accounts. Optional Microsoft Entra single sign-on integration is available for an additional fee.
- Monitoring and testing: Our measures include ongoing monitoring, intrusion prevention and detection, penetration testing, application scanning and protection against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
- Backups and response: Daily backups support recovery, with documented procedures for identifying, investigating and resolving security incidents.
Six ways to improve your team’s cybersecurity
Small, consistent habits can help your team protect accounts, spot suspicious activity and respond quickly when something goes wrong:
- Check before you click. Take a moment to check unexpected emails, links and attachments. Open your usual bookmarked site (rather than clicking a link) or contact support using details you already trust to check any account-based request.
- Use a different password for each account. Choose a long passphrase or use an approved password manager to generate and store strong passwords. Engagement Hub requires strong 16-character passwords. Don’t share logins between team members or reuse your work password elsewhere.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication. MFA adds another check when you sign in, helping protect your account if a password is stolen. Engagement Hub site administrators can enforce this for administrator and stakeholder accounts. Use it for your email and other work accounts wherever available too.
- Keep your software updated. Updates fix security weaknesses, so don’t keep putting them off. Follow your organisation’s IT instructions for updating computers, phones and browsers, including restarting devices when needed.
- Check what your backups cover. Engagement Hub provides daily platform backups. If you download consultation reports to a shared drive, check that your organisation’s backup arrangements cover those files as well.
- Report anything suspicious. Make sure everyone knows who to contact if they click an unexpected link, share a password or notice unusual account activity. Encourage your team to report concerns promptly so they can be investigated.
Privacy and security work together
Cybersecurity helps protect information from unauthorised access, loss and interference. Privacy also considers why you collect it, how you use it and when you no longer need it. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) recommends protecting personal information at every stage, from collection through to secure disposal.
Collect only the information you need and review who can access it. When a team member changes roles, check their administrator access. When your consultation finishes, review how long you need to keep personal information, including downloaded reports.
To find out more about Engagement Hub’s security features, visit our Security and Compliance page or contact our team for the Security and Compliance Statement. You can also visit the Australian Cyber Security Centre for practical cybersecurity guidance.
