Amnesty International research relies on collaborations across multiple teams. The Security Lab recently had the opportunity to provide technical research support to a new report about the CBP One app. The report was researched and written by human rights experts from Amnesty International’s Americas Regional Office and Amnesty International USA, based on several research trips and numerous interviews with asylum seekers and local and international organisations. The Security Lab supported the research through a technical analysis of the CBP One application. 

Nikole Yanez is a computer scientist by training, and a human rights defender from Honduras. She is passionate about feminism, the impact of the internet and protecting activists. She was first drawn to human rights through her work as a reporter with a local community radio station.

Click here for a PDF version of this briefing.

An expansive range of highly invasive spyware and surveillance products are being imported and deployed in Indonesia, Amnesty International’s Security Lab said today as it released a new briefing in collaboration with media partners – Haaretz, Inside Story, Tempo, WAV research collective and Woz.  

On 10 April 2024, Apple sent threat notifications to users of iPhones in 92 countries. According to Tech Crunch, the warning text read: 

Recent research by Security Lab partner organisations, Access Now, Citizen Lab and Reporters Without Borders has demonstrated the continued use of the highly invasive spyware Pegasus. 

Our right to privacy and our ability to express ourselves freely online is more at risk than ever before. Governments use spyware to target human rights defenders and disruptive internet censorship systems that block entire websites that talk about human rights. In fact, Amnesty’s websites are completely blocked to people living in countries like Russia, Iran and China, just because we dare to confront human rights violations in those countries.

Technical specifications and marketing material from surveillance vendors is often kept secret. The resulting information asymmetry prevents defenders in the cybersecurity industry and at-risk civil society groups from understanding the full scope of threats that they face. The aim of this research is to provide concrete information about surveillance capabilities available from one vendor in the commercial surveillance market. We hope that this report can be a resource for the cybersecurity community and major mobile device and technology vendors.

The Pegasus Project was a ground-breaking collaboration by more than 80 journalists from 17 media organizations in 10 countries coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based media non-profit, in partnership Amnesty International’s Security Lab. The Security Lab conducted cutting-edge forensic tests on potentially targeted mobile devices which confirmed numerous new cases of Pegasus spyware attacks.

The Predator Files, an investigation published in October 2023 and coordinated by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) media network, exposed the proliferation of surveillance technologies around the world and the failure of governments and the European Union to properly regulate the industry. The Intellexa alliance – an association of several European companies – supplied a form of highly invasive spyware, Predator, to states around the world and enabled the unlawful targeting of activists, journalists, academics and political figures.

Amnesty International’s Security Lab website, like most websites, uses small text files called cookies. This note provides information on what cookies are, which cookies the Security Lab uses, and how they can be controlled. 

Amnesty International’s Security Lab is committed to ensuring the privacy of all our users. We have long campaigned for the right to privacy and against government unlawful surveillance and intrusion. This policy represents our commitment as an organisation to your right to privacy, giving you a clear explanation about how we use your information and your rights over that information. The same principles also apply when we collect personal data from you through other channels (e-mail, phone calls or messages, etc.).