Citizen Lab researchers alert pro-independence individuals were targeted in a “possible case of domestic political espionage.”

In order to build up its censorship algorithm, WeChat surveils international accounts to decide what gets through to China-registered users. A Citizen Lab study finds that the messaging app blacklisted more than 500 keyword combinations relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, experts have witnessed a rise in the number of disinformation and cyber espionage campaigns emerging from state actors, including Russia and China

New reporting reveals that Toronto police officers deployed Clearview AI for months before Chief Mark Saunders knew of its use. The controversial facial recognition tool identifies individuals by scanning billions of pictures from the open web, including social media sites

This comprehensive Toronto Star profile provides an overview of the Citizen Lab’s work, impact, and history, mapping our journey from a initial Ford Foundation grant to an organization with 18 staff and a dozen research fellows.

Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton discusses why WhatsApp is suing NSO Group after discovering their spyware was used to target 1,400 users—100 of whom were members of civil society—and why this is a significant bellwether.

As part of our investigation into the incident, Citizen Lab has identified over 100 cases of abusive targeting of human rights defenders and journalists in at least 20 countries across the globe, ranging from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America that took place after Novalpina Capital acquired NSO Group and began an ongoing public relations campaign to promote the narrative that the new ownership would curb abuses.

Between November 2018 and May 2019, we observed intrusion attempts against individuals from the Private Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan Parliament, and Tibetan human rights groups.

The Predator in your Pocket and Installing Fear investigate the stalkerware industry through two distinct lenses: the former provides an interdisciplinary scan of the stalkerware market and includes technical, marketing, and privacy policy analyses, while the latter provides a study of how stalkerware fits into the Canadian legal landscape.

Dubbed Endless Mayfly, the operators spoofed legitimate news outlets and disseminated fake stories through social media accounts. Once the articles had gained traction, they were deleted and the links were redirected to the domain being impersonated. This “ephemeral disinformation” technique provided the veneer of legitimacy while obscuring the origins of the fake narratives.