Citizen Lab surveillance research on Hacking Team and FinFisher highlighted in articles on Motherboard, the Varsity, and the New York Times.

In an article written for Foreign Affairs, Citizen Lab Senior Research Fellow Jason Q. Ng discusses the crackdown of “rumours” on the popular Chinese WeChat mobile application, and its broader implications for censorship in the country.

Citizen Lab Senior Research Fellow Jason Q. Ng spoke to the China Economic Review on the findings of the UC Browser report, and the impact of security vulnerabilities on users.

A “secret network” launched by the Canadian federal government last year, costing millions of dollars to taxpayers, came under close scrutiny following a suspected hack. Citizen Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Christoper Parsons explains the possibilities behind the leaking of the document.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), a government agency responsible for the establishment and operation of telecommunications in the country, ordered the shutdown of BlackBerry’s encrypted communication services.

Hacking Team, a Milan-based developer of “offensive security” technology that markets its products to governments and law enforcement agencies around the world, was significantly compromised when hackers leaked nearly 400 GB of its internal data, including emails, client files, and financial documents. The leak was announced via Hacking Team’s own compromised Twitter account, and the content made publicly available. Among other things, the leaked documents confirmed our findings that the company sells its software to several governments with repressive human rights records, such as Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, and more.

Citizen Lab’s Research Fellow John Scott-Railton spoke to Politico regarding the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers in support of Bashar Al-Assad’s government. An article by Business Insider also featured Citizen Lab research into ISIS malware attacks.

China’s censorship of social media platforms has largely been focused on speech that targets or criticizes the government, until recently. The Cyberspace Administration of China’s new regulations will target sexual innuendo, in particular 25 of the most popular “dirty words” in China.

Cyber Stewards Network partner 7iber marked it’s founding anniversary on Jordan’s independence day by highlighting the poor state of press freedom and women’s rights in the country.

Pakistan’s English newspaper DAWN spoke to Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert regarding the privacy challenges that individual users can face, in light of the fact that our communications are increasingly mediated through the Internet.