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.

At least five civil society victims of QuaDream’s spyware and exploits were identified in North America, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Victims include journalists, political opposition figures, and an NGO worker. Traces of a suspected iOS 14 zero-click exploit used to deploy QuaDream’s spyware.

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.

The Citizen Lab is at the forefront of investigating and reporting on abuses of mercenary spyware. Our submission highlights the capabilities of spyware and the nature of the spyware industry; how surveillance technology is used to violate fundamental human rights, and more particularly how it is related to enforced disappearances; and we provide recommendations for states, spyware companies, other businesses, civil society, and the Working Group.

The Citizen Lab, in collaboration with Catalan civil society groups, has identified at least 65 individuals targeted or infected with mercenary spyware, including members of the European Parliament, Catalan Presidents, legislators, jurists, and members of civil society organisations.

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 »

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.

هذا البعد الرقمي للقمع العابر للحدود – الذي نشير إليه بالقمع الرقمي العابر للحدود – أصبح بسرعة حجر الزاوية للقمع العابر للحدود بشكل يومي، ويشكل تهديدًا لحقوق وحريات المعارضين والنشطاء الذين يعيشون في المنفى.

这份报告阐述了数字化跨国镇压对居住在加拿大的活动家和异见人士有哪些影响。我们的结论是，数字化跨国镇压对这些群体产生了严重影响，包括对他们开展跨国人权宣传工作能力的影响。然而，遭受这种攻击的受害者几乎没有得到任何支持，到目前为止，加拿大政府的政策力度仍显不足。

In this report, we describe how activists and dissidents living in Canada are impacted by digital transnational repression. We conclude that digital transnational repression has a serious impact on these communities, including their ability to undertake transnational advocacy work related to human rights. Yet, there is little support for victims who experience such targeting and policy efforts by the Canadian government to date have been insufficient.