Kampala — In a country hurtling toward a high-stakes election and an increasingly perilous digital future, Uganda has turned to an unlikely frontline of defenders: its journalists. As cyberattacks surge worldwide and misinformation becomes a political weapon, the people who tell the nation’s stories are now being trained to protect its democracy. Inside a hall at the National ICT Innovation Hub in Nakawa, reporters from radio stations, TV studios, newspapers, and online platforms gathered on November 12 not just to learn—but to brace for a cyber battlefield that could shape the outcome of the 2026 elections. Here, amid warnings of data breaches and digital manipulation, one message rang out clearly: Uganda’s security may depend as much on cybersecurity as on the stories its journalists choose to tell.
The training, jointly organized by the National Information Technology Authority–Uganda (NITA-U) and the Personal Data Protection Office (PDPO), was part of the nationwide Beera Ku Guard campaign. On paper, it was a workshop on digital safety. In practice, it felt like a briefing for the front lines of a new kind of fight, one waged not with guns or tear gas, but with malware, phishing, and disinformation.
“Journalists are key partners in raising awareness,” said Arnold Mangeni, NITA-U’s Director of Information Security. His message carried weight. “Accurate and informed reporting protects not only systems and organizations but also the citizens behind them.”
For years, data protection has been treated as a technical issue, something for IT staff and government offices. But Mangeni’s warning landed with the clarity of a headline: in a country where only 13 percent of citizens know their data rights, the people who tell the national story must also understand the digital terrain they operate in.
A Landscape Full of Risks
The timing of the training is no coincidence. Uganda is charging toward the 2026 General Elections at a moment when global cybersecurity threats, driven by sophisticated hackers, state-linked actors, and AI-enabled scams, are rising sharply.
The Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025 paints a worrying picture: rapid adoption of new technologies has outpaced the public’s ability to use them safely. Cybercriminals, meanwhile, have grown smarter.
“Emerging technologies are giving attackers new tools and new reach,” Mangeni said.
The vulnerabilities are not abstract. Uganda’s electoral systems, political parties, civil society organizations, and media houses are all increasingly digital and therefore exposed. A well-timed breach or fabricated online narrative could erode trust in an election long before votes are cast.
If journalists are to expose digital wrongdoing, they must first know how to protect themselves. That was the message cybersecurity expert Jerome Okot drove home with a simple but disarming line:
“If everyone of us is secure, everyone else is secure.”
He then walked reporters through the basics, practical, unglamorous, essential.
Enable multi-factor authentication.
Use strong passwords.
Don’t download files from strangers.
Update software.
Pause before clicking on that curious email.
To the untrained eye, these seem like small acts. To cybersecurity experts, they form the first wall of defense in a digital world where an infected file can compromise an entire newsroom.
A Warning for Election Season
Beyond protecting their own devices, journalists were urged to understand how information itself can be weaponized. As past elections around the world have shown, from the United States to Kenya to Brazil, misinformation often spreads faster than ballots can be counted.
“Journalists have a responsibility to inform and educate citizens about safeguarding personal data,” said PDPO compliance officer Gilbert Ssettuuma.
“As we approach elections, your role becomes even more critical.”
Ssettuuma’s concern goes beyond individual privacy. In a political climate where trust is fragile, even a single misleading online story can distort public perception, especially on platforms where fact-checking is rare and outrage spreads fast.
The Bigger Mission: Beera Ku Guard
The Beera Ku Guard campaign, now rolling out across the country, is built around a simple idea: digital safety is everyone’s job. But in a media ecosystem where competition is fierce and misinformation is cheap; journalists hold a unique kind of power.
They can explain new laws.
Debunk fake messages.
Call out unsafe practices.
And shape how the public behaves online.
That influence, NITA-U believes, can become Uganda’s strongest defense.
The journalists at the Nakawa hub left with more than cybersecurity tips. They carried a reminder that in a hyper-connected era, the boundaries between personal safety, national security, and responsible journalism are more blurred than ever.
Cyberattacks don’t only target powerful institutions. They strike phones, laptops, WhatsApp groups, anywhere information lives.
As Uganda steps into a high-stakes election year, the risks are real. But so is the possibility of building a digitally conscious society.
The final message of the day came from Okot, and it hung in the air long after the session ended:
“Cybersecurity is not a solo effort. We rise or fall together.”
