RESEARCH → FOCUS AREA

Targeted Surveillance

Investigating abusive surveillance against journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and civil society.

Around the globe, civil society is under threat from digital espionage and surveillance. Surveillance tactics are used to stifle freedoms and rights, undermine free speech, and erode democratic values.

Our research examines the abuse of surveillance technologies against civil society, including ‘zero-click’ spyware that can silently acquire total access to a phone, sophisticated phishing attacks to gain entry into email accounts, and the manipulation of telecommunication systems to track location data.

We work closely with communities under threat and peer research organizations to identify and disclose security vulnerabilities to tech companies, leading to improved online security for billions of users worldwide. We seek to educate and inform policymakers, courts, and the public about the threats from the proliferation of surveillance technologies.

LATEST RESEARCH

research → Brief

Targeting Democracy

Pegasus and Mercenary Spyware Attacks on Serbian Pro-Democracy Figures

In collaboration with the SHARE Foundation, we found with high confidence that Professor Vladan Đokić, Rector of the University of Belgrade, and prominent supporter of the Serbian student movement, was hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in 2026. Additionally, we note that Rade Bajić, who, as a prosecutor, investigated official corruption in a failed project in Belgrade, received an Apple Threat Notification. These notifications are high-confidence indicators of targeting with mercenary spyware such as Pegasus. Our investigations into these cases are ongoing.

October 19, 2026

Targeted Surveillance
research → Brief

Exposing AdFection Executive Summary

This is an executive summary for our report “Exposing AdFection: How Discover-Tech Turned Targeted Ads Into a Pipeline for Zero-Click Mercenary Spyware.”

October 15, 2026

Targeted Surveillance
research → Report

Exposing AdFection

How Discover-Tech Turned Targeted Ads Into a Pipeline for Zero-Click Mercenary Spyware

This is the first-ever public confirmation of zero-click mercenary spyware delivered via targeted ads. We call the technique AdFection, and show how it was used to infect devices at Al Jazeera with Candiru’s spyware. We also uncover Discover-Tech, and show how the company helps mercenary surveillance vendors track and hack devices around the world.

October 15, 2026

Targeted Surveillance