This report reveals a campaign of reconnaissance, phishing, and malware operations that use content and domains made to mimic Chinese language news websites.

NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware and exploit framework were used in infection attempts against Mexican senators and senior politicians in June and July 2016.

On June 19, 2017 Citizen Lab’s Reckless Exploit report received front page coverage on the New York Times. This research revealed that Mexican journalists and lawyers were the targets of sophisticated phishing attempts, using government-exclusive spyware produced by the NSO Group.

Cyber Stewards Network partner ICT Watch Indonesia was recently recognized at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS) for their tireless work in championing online freedom of expression.

Documents stolen from a prominent journalist and critic of the Russian government were manipulated and then released as a “leak” to discredit domestic and foreign critics of the government. We call this technique “tainted leaks.”

May 4 – Toronto, Canada

We are releasing a more comprehensive “checklist” consolidating our thoughts on how best to confront the lack of accountability in the commercial spyware trade.

This post recaps Citizen Lab’s major research reports for 2016, which span issues surrounding censorship, surveillance, privacy, and cybersecurity as they relate to fitness trackers, political dissidents, social media users, and more.

This report describes an espionage operation using government-exclusive spyware to target Mexican government food scientists and two public health advocates.

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert has been named as part of the “Humans of the Year” series of VICE Motherboard, which profiles his work in defending cyber security through studies of hacking groups and censorship worldwide.