Citizen Lab

Citizen Lab say exiled Uyghur leaders targeted with Windows spyware

Unknown hackers last month targeted leaders of the exiled Uyghur community in a campaign involving Windows spyware, researchers revealed Monday.  Citizen Lab, a digital rights research group based at the University of Toronto, detailed an espionage campaign against members of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), an organization that represents the Muslim-minority group, which has for […]

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Citizen Lab says exiled Uyghur leaders targeted with Windows spyware

Unknown hackers last month targeted leaders of the exiled Uyghur community in a campaign involving Windows spyware, researchers revealed Monday.  Citizen Lab, a digital rights research group based at the University of Toronto, detailed an espionage campaign against members of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), an organization that represents the Muslim-minority group, which has for

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Again and again, NSO Group’s customers keep getting their spyware operations caught

On Thursday, Amnesty International published a new report detailing attempted hacks against two Serbian journalists, allegedly carried out with NSO Group’s spyware Pegasus.  The two journalists, who work for the Serbia-based Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), received suspicious text messages including a link — basically a phishing attack, according to the nonprofit. In one case, Amnesty

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Apple fixes iPhone and iPad bug used in an ‘extremely sophisticated attack’

On Monday, Apple released updates for its mobile operating systems for iOS and iPadOS, which fixed a flaw that the company said “may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.” In the release notes for iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1, the company said the vulnerability allowed the disabling of USB

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Governments call for spyware regulations in UN Security Council meeting

On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council held a meeting to discuss the dangers of commercial spyware, which marks the first time this type of software — also known as government or mercenary spyware — has been discussed at the Security Council.  The goal of the meeting, according to the U.S. Mission to the UN,

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Why Apple sends spyware victims to this nonprofit security lab

Before the elections, the cybersecurity team of U.S. vice president and then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris reached out to Apple asking for help, according to Forbes, after a tool that’s designed to detect spyware on iPhones flagged anomalies on two devices belonging to campaign staffers. Apple declined to forensically analyze the phones, per Forbes.  The company’s

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Russian programmer says FSB agents planted spyware on his Android phone

A programmer said the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) installed spyware on his Android phone after he was detained in Moscow earlier this year. Security researchers confirmed that his phone had spyware installed, likely when the authorities had physical access to his phone and had forced him to give up his passcode.  For the programmer

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Poland arrests former spy chief in Pegasus spyware probe

For the last few years, the Polish government under Donald Tusk has been investigating the use — and alleged abuse — of Pegasus phone spyware by the previous government.  On Monday, the former head of Poland’s internal security agency Piotr Pogonowski was arrested and forcibly taken to testify before parliament, as part of the current

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Internet surveillance firm Sandvine says it’s leaving 56 “non-democratic” countries

Sandvine, the makers of surveillance-ware that allowed authoritarian countries to censor the internet and spy on their citizens, announced that it is leaving dozens of “non-democratic” countries as part of a major overhaul of the company.  The company, which was founded in Canada, published a statement on Thursday, claiming that it now wants to be

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