Bill Marczak

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I am a Senior Research Fellow at Citizen Lab, a co-founder of Bahrain Watch, and a Postdoctoral Researcher at UC Berkeley, where I received my PhD in Computer Science under the advisorship of Vern Paxson. My work focuses on novel technological threats to Internet freedom, including new censorship and surveillance tools. My expertise is in Internet scanning and conducting digital investigations. Coverage of my work has been featured in Vanity Fair, the New York Times, the Washington Post, on CNN, and on Larry King.

Articles

PREDATOR IN THE WIRES: Ahmed Eltantawy Targeted with Predator Spyware After Announcing Presidential Ambitions

Between May and September 2023, former Egyptian MP Ahmed Eltantawy was targeted with Cytrox’s Predator spyware via links sent on SMS and WhatsApp after Eltantawy publicly stated his plans to run for President in the 2024 Egyptian elections. As Egypt is a known customer of Cytrox’s Predator spyware, and the spyware was delivered via network injection from a device located physically inside Egypt, we attribute the attack to the Egyptian government with high confidence.

New Pegasus Spyware Abuses Identified in Mexico

Mexican digital rights organization R3D, with technical support from the Citizen Lab, has determined that Mexican journalists and a human rights defender were infected with Pegasus between 2019 and 2021. The infections occurred years after the first revelations of Pegasus abuses in Mexico, and after Mexico’s current President assured the public that the government no longer used the spyware, and that there would be no further abuses.

السلام بواسطة بيغاسوس: اختراق صحفيين ومدافعين عن حقوق الإنسان أردنيين بواسطة برنامج التجسس بيغاسوس

النتائج الرئيسية تم اختراق أجهزة أربعة مدافعين عن حقوق الإنسان، محاميين، وصحفيين أردنيين بواسطة برنامج التجسس بيغاسوس من مجموعة NSO في الفترة ما بين أغسطس 2019 و ديسمبر 2021. من ضمن المستهدفيين أفراد ناشطون في قضايا مكافحة الفساد في الأردن. اثنان من الأفراد المستهدفين نساء. نقدر أن اثنين على الأقل من المستهدفين الأربعة قد تم… Read more »

Peace through Pegasus: Jordanian Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Hacked with Pegasus Spyware

Phones belonging to four Jordanian human rights defenders, lawyers, and journalists were hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware between August 2019 and December 2021. We assess that at least two of the four targets were hacked by Pegasus operators primarily focused on Jordan, based on SMS messages containing Pegasus links that map to a cluster of domain names focusing on Jordanian themes.

اللؤلؤة 2 بيغاسوس: اختراق نشطاء بحرينيين ببيغاسوس، فقط بعد أيام من تقرير يؤكد اختراق ضحايا آخرين

يؤكد التحقيق الذي أجريناه أن الهواتف التي تخص ثلاثة أفراد في البحرين قد تم اختراقها في عام 2021 باستخدام برنامج التجسس Pegasus التابع لمجموعة NSO. وافق اثنان من الأفراد المستهدفين على ذكر أسمائهم.