Citizen Lab

The widow of Jamal Khashoggi—a Saudi journalist brutally executed by intelligence agents for writing critically about the regime—is suing the NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance company allegedly responsible for creating malicious spyware surreptitiously installed on her and her late husband’s devices. Hanan Elatr believes communications gleaned from her device without her knowledge for nearly a year led to her husband’s detention and eventual grisly dismemberment by bone sawat the hands of Saudi assassins. Now, more than…

Israeli digital surveillance for hire giant NSO Group reportedly deployed at least three newattacks last year targeting human rights workers and other members of civil society spread out around the world using Apple devices. All of those “zero-click” exploits, according to new research from The Citizen Lab, could tap NSO into a victim’s device without them ever having to click a dirty link or any interaction by the target. Though the new attacks highlight NSO’s continued effort to crack Apple products, there is a silver…

An Israeli firm's hacking tools have been used against journalists, opposition figures and advocacy organizations across at least 10 countries - including people in North America and Europe - according to new research published Tuesday by Microsoft Corp and the internet watchdog Citizen Lab. Citizen Lab said in its report that it had been able to identify a handful of civil society victims whose iPhones had been hacked using surveillance software developed by the Israeli company, QuaDream Ltd - a lower-profile competitor…

A former executive on Meta’s security policy team was hacked by the Greek government using sophisticated spyware known as “Predator,” which tracked her for a whole year. Artemis Seaford, who formerly worked as a trust and safety manager on Meta’s security policy team, had her phone digitally infected by malware in September of 2021, the New York Times reported Monday. Seaford was secretly under surveillance at the behest of the Greek national intelligence service, which deployed tracking software widely. “Predator” was…

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has proved his dislike of journalists in the past, and a report from this year showed his government used Pegasus spyware to infect reporters’ phones.Photo: MARVIN RECINOS/AF (Getty Images)A number of El Salvador-based journalists are suing the notorious makers of the prolific Pegasus spyware suite in U.S. court, alleging the company sold the repressive Bukele regime spyware used to hack their phones.In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, California, attorneys…

Adam Schiff, Chair of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. Photo: Brandon Bell (Getty Images)Members of Congress—you know, the people who can’t seem to do anything—are taking their considerable talents to the fight against digital threats. On Wednesday, the House Intelligence Committee held a public hearing to address the threat of “commercial cyber surveillance,” otherwise known as the spyware industry. Experts and victims told lawmakers to blacklist abusive spyware makers from doing business in the U.S., thereby…

At least 30 political activists in Thailand have been hacked using the Israeli surveillance spyware Pegasus, according to a joint investigation by human rights and cyber monitoring groups, which suspects the attacks were launched locally. The probe by Thai human rights group iLaw, Southeast Asian internet watchdog Digital Reach, and Toronto-based Citizen Lab, followed a mass alert from Apple Inc in November informing thousands of iPhone users, including in Thailand, that they were targets of "state-sponsored attackers".…

An Israeli group sold a tool to hack into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft, and technology human rights group Citizen Lab said on Thursday, shedding light on the growing business of finding and selling tools to hack widely used software.The hacking tool vendor, named Candiru, created and sold a software exploit that can penetrate Windows, one of many intelligence products sold by a secretive industry that finds flaws in common software platforms for their clients, said a report by Citizen Lab.Technical analysis by security…

Photo: Amir Levy (Getty Images)On Tuesday, news broke of a potential acquisition that would upend the surveillance industry if approved: NSO Group, one of the most well-known, notorious, and troubled spyware vendors on the market, may be bought by L3Harris Technologies, a major American defense contractor that specializes in a wide assortment of surveillance and military products. The next day, the White House fired a shot across the bow, putting both companies on notice. The acquisition, which was originally reported by…