Citizen Lab

21 results arranged by date

Alesya Marokhovskaya and Irina Dolinina

Two Prague-based Russian journalists threatened, fear surveillance

New York, September 21, 2023—Czech authorities must conduct a swift and thorough investigation into recent threats received by journalists at the independent investigative news website IStories and ensure the journalists’ safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. Between March and September 2023, IStories received four threatening messages via the feedback form on the outlet’s…

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For Mexican journalists, President López Obrador’s pledge to curb spyware rings hollow

“Practically nothing.” RíoDoce magazine editor Andrés Villarreal spoke with a sigh and a hint of resignation as he described what came of Mexico’s investigation into the attempted hacking of his cell phone. “The federal authorities never contacted me personally. They told us informally that it wasn’t them, but that’s it.” Over five years have passed…

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At least 2 Mexican journalists targeted by Pegasus spyware since López Obrador took office

Mexico City, October 3, 2022 – In response to a joint report published Sunday that found Pegasus spyware infected the devices of two Mexican journalists and a human rights defender between 2019 and 2021, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “This new report definitively shows that Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador…

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New York Times journalist Nicole Perlroth on the secret trade in tools used to hack the press

The last time New York Times cybersecurity journalist Nicole Perlroth spoke with Emirati activist Ahmed Mansoor in 2016, his passport had been taken and he had recently been beaten almost to the point of death. “We learned later on that our phone conversation had been tapped, that someone was in his baby monitor, that his…

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Journalists are shown working at their desks behind the scenes of a TV news studio.

Dozens of journalists newly identified as NSO Group spyware targets

New York, December 21, 2020 – NSO Group’s advanced Pegasus spyware was identified on phones of at least 36 journalists and media executives in July and August 2020, according to the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab, which said the surveillance product was installed via a vulnerability in the iPhone messaging application. Most targets were affiliated…

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In a street scene, a police officer reaches towards a woman carrying a camera

CPJ joins call for California attorney general to investigate technology used in Belarus censorship

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined free expression and digital rights groups on September 23 in calling on Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, to investigate technology sales by Sandvine Inc. after the company acknowledged that its products were being used to block news and other websites amid anti-government protests in Belarus. The call, co-signed by…

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Government Technology Agency staff demonstrate Singapore's new contact-tracing smartphone app called TraceTogether, as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus on March 20, 2020. Bill Marczak, an expert in cellphone surveillance technology, told CPJ about the implications for journalists as governments ramp up their capacity to monitor citizens in a time of crisis. (AFP/Catherine Lai)

Expert Bill Marczak: What journalists should know about coronavirus cellphone tracking

Governments all over the world have been considering cellphone surveillance to help track and contain the spread of the coronavirus.

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A screen shows a CCTV state media broadcast of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Wuhan at a shopping centre in Beijing on March 10, 2020. Researchers at Citizen Lab have documented Chinese platforms censoring keywords related to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. (Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Q&A: Citizen Lab documents Chinese censorship of coronavirus keywords

Li Wenliang, a doctor in Wuhan who was reprimanded for warning colleagues of a new coronavirus earlier this year, used the messaging app WeChat to share his concerns on December 30, 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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A man reads at a stand of the Israeli technology firm NSO Group at the annual European Police Congress in Berlin, Germany, February 4, 2020. WhatsApp has alleged the group's technology enabled the remote surveillance of members of civil society via their phones, with several Indian journalists among the targets. (Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke)

After WhatsApp spyware allegations, Indian journalists demand government transparency

In the summer of 2019, Saroj Giri was preparing a lecture on the panopticon—an 18th century system to surveil an entire prison from a single viewpoint—when a message lit up his phone. It was from WhatsApp, warning Giri that someone had tried to hack the popular messaging app to spy on his cell phone remotely.

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Maati Monjib, right, chats with Moroccan journalist Hicham Mansouri in Rabat, Morocco, January 17, 2016. Amnesty International reported this month that Monjib has been sent malicious messages in an attempt to install spyware on his phone. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Q&A: Moroccan press freedom advocate and NSO Group spyware target Maati Monjib

Pegasus, the cellphone spyware tool sold by the Israeli firm NSO Group, is one of the most powerful surveillance systems governments can buy, experts say. Researchers who study it have detected “45 countries where Pegasus operators may be conducting surveillance operations,” and detailed its capabilities: whoever tricks the target into clicking on a link that…

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