This report describes a malware operation against the Syrian Opposition. We name the operator Group5, and suspect they have not been previously-reported. Group5 used “just enough” technical sophistication, combined with social engineering, to target computers and mobile phones with malware.

This report describes a campaign of targeted spyware attacks carried out by a sophisticated operator, which we call Stealth Falcon. The attacks have been conducted from 2012 until the present, against Emirati journalists, activists, and dissidents.

In “Chilling Effects: Online Surveillance and Wikipedia Use,” Citizen Lab Research Fellow Jon Penney analyzes the fall of traffic to Wikipedia articles about terror groups and their techniques after the Snowden revelations.

April 27 – Boston, Massachusetts

Court documents provided in a case before the Quebec Court of Appeal indicate that the RCMP used advanced technology to spy on mobile phones in a criminal investigation on organized crime. Citizen Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Christopher Parsons spoke to the Globe and Mail about the case.

Privacy International (PI) latest report, entitled “The President’s Men?,” explores the role of Egypt’s Technical Research Department (TRD), a secret unit in the country’s intelligence infrastructure. In the report, PI cite Citizen Lab research on FinFisher and Hacking Team.

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert hosted a Q&A session with Ben Wizner, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, and attorney for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The event followed the screening of the CITIZENFOUR film.

March 30-April 1 – San Francisco, California

Citizen Lab Senior Research Fellow Bill Marczak spoke to ABC Australia regarding the proxy server for the remote intrusion software FinFisher found in Sydney, Australia.

Citizen Lab Senior Security Researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire was interviewed by CNN.