Our mission

From Mexico to Morocco, Vietnam to Hungary, governments are wielding a range of sophisticated cyber-tools to unlawfully spy on activists and journalists. When governments attack the people who are defending our rights, then we’re all at risk. We’re campaigning to end the unlawful targeted surveillance of human rights defenders.

The Security Lab is a multi-disciplinary team of researchers, hackers, coders, campaigners and advocates working to protect civil society from unlawful digital surveillance, spyware and other human rights abuses enabled by technology.

Security Lab

Amnesty International’s Security Lab leads cutting-edge technical investigations into cyber-attacks against activists and journalists. The Lab builds tools and services to help protect activists from attacks, as well as collaborating with the wider digital activist community to help them identify and respond to digital threats, from spyware to internet shutdowns.

Our research and investigations power our evidence-based campaigns and advocacy efforts to disrupt the misuse of surveillance technologies and ensure the victims of abuses are empowered to seek justice and accountability.

Digital Forensics Fellowship

The Security Lab’s Digital Forensic Fellowship aims to strengthen the knowledge of civil society technologists across the world who provide key digital security support to communities of human rights defenders. Fellows collaborate with experts in the Security Lab to deepen their understanding of digital forensics to help protect their local communities from digital threats.