A new Amnesty International investigation has established that Predator spyware was used in 2024 to target Teixeira Cândido, a prominent Angolan journalist, press freedom activist, jurist and former Secretary General of the Syndicate of Angolan Journalists (SJA).
A new investigation by Amnesty International’s Security Lab has discovered evidence that the Predator spyware was used in 2024 to target Teixeira Cândido – an Angolan journalist, jurist, press freedom activist, and former Secretary-General of the Syndicate of Angolan Journalists (Sindicato dos Journalists Angolanos). This is the first forensically confirmed case of the Predator spyware being used to target civil society in Angola.
The “Intellexa Leaks”, a new investigation published jointly by Inside Story, Haaretz and WAV Research Collective, presents troubling revelations about the surveillance company Intellexa and its signature product Predator, a form of highly invasive spyware that has been linked to human rights abuses in multiple countries.
The following talk was presented by Donncha Ó Cearbhaill from the Amnesty International Security Lab at the 37c3 Chaos Communications Congress in December 2023.
Shocking spyware attacks have been attempted against civil society, journalists, politicians and academics in the European Union (EU), USA and Asia, according to a major new investigation by Amnesty International. Among the targets of Predator spyware are United Nations (UN) officials, a Senator and Congressman in the USA and even the Presidents of the European Parliament and Taiwan. The investigation is part of the ‘Predator Files’ project, in partnership with the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) and backed by additional in-depth reporting by Mediapart and Der Spiegel.
On 5 October 2023, a major global investigation – the “Predator Files” – was published exposing the proliferation of surveillance technologies around the world and the failure of governments and the European Union (EU) to properly regulate the industry. The Security Lab at Amnesty International is a technical partner in the “Predator Files”, a project coordinated by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) media network into the Intellexa alliance, the makers and marketers of the Predator spyware. As part of this collaboration, the Security Lab has reviewed technical documentation, marketing material and other records obtained by Der Spiegel and Mediapart – who are part of EIC – which shed light on the ecosystem of surveillance products offered by the Intellexa alliance.
A new investigation into the global surveillance crisis by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) media network, with technical assistance from Amnesty International’s Security Lab, today begins to reveal the shocking truth about how far the industry’s tentacles have spread and how ineffective EU regulation has been in controlling it.