The Northern Beaches Women's Shelter hones focus on tech-enabled abuse

The Northern Beaches Women's Shelter (NBWS) is seeking assistance on behalf of vulnerable women experiencing technology-enabled and cyber abuse, a growing issue among those presenting to the non-profit.

CEO Narelle Hand told Digital Nation that technology can be weaponised against women, with the organisation keen to obtain further digital skills and outside assistance to help combat the issue.

“We have women who are experiencing technological and cyber abuse," Hand said.

“[This] is a new area that we're dealing with a lot with our women.

"If you have skills in that area that you might be able to help our women with, that's something that we are in desperate need of in education support."

Cyber abuse can often be complex due to the technology involved, making detection a significant challenge, according to Hand.

“We have women that come and they think they've got tracking devices in the car and we take it to the car place and they can't find [anything] but 100 percent it's happening," she said.

“It's so digitally complex now. It's a real challenge.”

Hand said that NBWS staff also needed to build capability around dealing with these kinds of issues.

The shelter collaborates with technology partners including N-Able IT to help educate its personnel and to build strong cyber security.

"We continue to work to make sure that any new offerings of safety security software that's available [are] taken on and that our staff are getting cyber training," Hand said.

Data security

Data security is a key concern - for women, donors and the organisation. This goes to both legislative and "human resposibility", Hand said.

"This is someone's life, this is someone's information and we make sure we have everything in place that we can to safely secure that data.

"The information of a vulnerable person that comes in our service, if that isn't cared for safely, that could definitely compromise that person's safety and we do not want that to happen."

Hand said that NBWS uses Infoxchange as its case management system.

"That is a specific system that is designed to manage resident data," she said.

“We [also] have our client reference management system for our donor information, and we work with our IT security organisation to make any [concerns are addressed."

Tech skills on the Board

NBWS has focused on having a broad range of skills at the Board level, including technology, for the best and most effective governance.

“It’s essential for every Board to have someone that has those skills … and the other thing is that you need to have a Board that understands the technology and what's happening in the industry to be able to advise the Board well," Hand said.

NBWS started in 2010, predominantly as a crisis and crisis accommodation service, and has grown exponentially.

"We now have four services, and five houses where we support women and women with children," Hand said.