Amnesty International’s Security Lab is pleased to announce that it is part of the inaugural cohort of groups to be supported by the Spyware Accountability Initiative (SAI), whose mission is to grow a global field of civil society organizations who are advancing threat research, advocacy and accountability to address the use and trade of spyware. …
In the summer of 2022, I watched a recording of Claudio Guarnieri, former Head of the Amnesty Tech Security Lab, presenting about Security Without Borders at the 2016 Chaos Communication Congress. After following the investigations of the Pegasus Project and other projects centring on spyware being used on journalists and human rights defenders, his call to…
The following talk was presented by Donncha Ó Cearbhaill from the Amnesty International Security Lab at the 37c3 Chaos Communications Congress in December 2023. Talk description Ever evolving mercenary spyware continues to threaten the safety of activists, journalist and human rights defenders around the world. Following the exposure of the Pegasus spyware scandal, this talk…
Ahead of the COP28 climate conference, which begins in Dubai on 30 November, Rebecca White, Campaigner at Amnesty International’s Disrupting Surveillance Team, said: “It is no secret that targeted digital surveillance has long been weaponized in the United Arab Emirates to crush dissent and stifle freedom of expression. Prior to his arrest in 2017, human rights defender Ahmed…
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. The ‘Predator Files’ focuses on the…
This blog post was written as part of the Digital Forensics Fellowship by one of the 2022-2023 Fellows. About me: My name is Paul Aguilar, I was born in Mexico, I’m a Computer Engineer by profession, and passionate about technology and free culture by choice. I am currently Coordinator of Digital Security at an organisation…
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UN member states should urgently support a halt on the sale, transfer and use of spyware to end the endemic unlawful surveillance of activists, journalists, lawyers, and political leaders, Amnesty International said today. 107, 273 people from 180 countries and territories signed the organization’s petition demanding UN member states support a global moratorium on surveillance…
Confirming that Amnesty International has independently confirmed that Pegasus spyware was used to hack Polish senator, Krzysztof Brejza, when he was running the opposition’s 2019 parliamentary election campaign, Amnesty International Poland’s Director Anna Błaszczak, said: “These findings are shocking but not surprising. They raise serious concerns not only for politicians, but for the whole Poland’s civil…
South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) is using abusive surveillance to terrorize journalists, activists and critics, leading to a climate of intense fear and self-censorship, Amnesty International said in a new report. “These Walls Have Ears” – The Chilling Effect of Surveillance in South Sudan” presents new evidence of the South Sudanese authorities’ surveillance capabilities,…
Summary: Introduction FinSpy is a full-fledged surveillance software suite, capable of intercepting communications, accessing private data, and recording audio and video, from the computer or mobile devices it is silently installed on. FinSpy is produced by Munich-based company FinFisher Gmbh and sold to law enforcement and government agencies around the world. According to media reports,…
A new Amnesty International investigation has found a wave of digital attacks that likely originated from government-backed bodies starting from early January 2019 and involving multiple attempts to gain access to the email accounts of several prominent Egyptian human rights defenders, media and civil society organizations’ staff. The attacks appear to be part of a…