Publications
Our investigation of a spearphishing campaign that targeted senior members of the World Uyghur Congress in March 2025 reveals a highly-customized attack delivery method. The ruse used by attackers replicates a pattern in which threat actors weaponize software and websites aimed at preserving and supporting marginalized and repressed cultures to target those same communities.
The Citizen Lab’s Marcus Michaelsen and Siena Anstis published a research article in the peer-reviewed journal Democratization about the gendered forms of digital threats faced by women human rights defenders and journalists in exile and in the diaspora. Click here to read the article.
In our first investigation into Israel-based spyware company, Paragon Solutions, we begin to untangle multiple threads connected to the proliferation of Paragon’s mercenary spyware operations across the globe. This report includes an infrastructure analysis of Paragon’s spyware product, called Graphite; a forensic analysis of infected devices belonging to members of civil society; and a closer look at the use of Paragon spyware in both Canada and Italy.
The Citizen Lab’s Siena Anstis and Ron Deibert examine the phenomenon of digital transnational repression in “Silenced by Surveillance: The Impacts of Digital Transnational Repression on Journalists, Human Rights Defenders, and Dissidents in Exile”, published by Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Read the essay here.
A new book co-authored by Siena Anstis, senior legal advisor at The Citizen Lab, is now available for purchase. Transnational Repression and International Law explores the rise of state-sponsored extraterritorial killings and the implications for international law. Order your copy here.
