This report discusses the targeting of Egyptian NGOs by Nile Phish, a large-scale phishing campaign. Almost all of the targets we identified are also implicated in Case 173, a sprawling legal case brought by the Egyptian government against NGOs, which has been referred to as an “unprecedented crackdown” on Egypt’s civil society. Nile Phish operators demonstrate an intimate knowledge of Egyptian NGOs, and are able to roll out phishing attacks within hours of government actions, such as arrests.

December 29 – Hamburg, Germany

Senior Research Fellow Bill Marczak was featured in a Vanity Fair article exploring his discovery of the spyware used to target UAE dissident Ahmed Mansoor, detailed in a recent Citizen Lab report.

This report describes how a government targeted an internationally recognized human rights defender, Ahmed Mansoor, with the Trident, a chain of zero-day exploits designed to infect his iPhone with sophisticated commercial spyware.

Research Reports John Scott-Railton, Rebekah Brown, Ksenia Ermoshina, and Ron Deibert. “Rivers of Phish: Sophisticated Phishing Targets Russia’s Perceived Enemies Around the Globe,” The Citizen Lab Report No. 177, University of Toronto, August 14, 2024. John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Ksenia Ermoshina, Siena Anstis, and Ron Deibert. “By Whose Authority? Pegasus targeting of… Read more »