It was a pleasure to speak at #InternetCA ‘25 together with regional partners & Kazakhstan🇰🇿& Kyrgyzstan🇰🇬 officials. I highlighted the disproportionality of internet shutdowns 🛜, the dangers of “white lists” ☑️‼️& the importance of protecting e2e encryption🔒 🙏 to MediaNET for the invitation

This should be a big scandal! U.S. hacking company employee is accused of selling trade secrets to Russia 🇷🇺 ! A stark reminder why commercial spyware industry is such a threat to U.S. & other Western democracies’ national security. We need strict controls & enforcement!

New investigation by SentinelOne & partners from DSL Ukraine into phishing attack targeting humanitarian actors. The attack chain overlaps with Russian FSB hacking group COLDRIVER/Star Blizzard which we at @accessnow.org & @citizenlab.ca reported on last year www.sentinelone.com/labs/phantom...

🇷🇺 🇺🇦 Russian forces struck a kindergarten in Kharkiv with killer drones on Wednesday morning, according to top Ukrainian officials. www.politico.eu/article/russ... #Russia #Ukraine

Today’s WhatsApp v NSO injunction is a BIG DEAL & may essentially kill Pegasus spyware *as we know it.* To comply, NSO would have to ensure that their spyware cannot access WhatsApp messages or break WhatsApp’s encryption. This means that NSO can no longer offer “unlimited” access to victims’ 📱s

💡Some key recommendations from @accessnow.org's @natynettle.bsky.social, @mdedora.bsky.social, & Rand Hammoud on 🇺🇸ICE's contract with #spyware vendor Paragon Solutions. 👇👇👇

Great News! 👏 Apple announced they will be donating 1000 iPhone 17s with the much more secure Memory Integrity Enforcement to high-risk users! Another meaningful step that Apple is taking to protect journalists, activists & dissidents from commercial spyware! 1/ security.apple.com/blog/apple-s...

A highly concerning development. NSO and its customers have been targeting U.S. companies like WhatsApp and government officials in violation of U.S. laws and national security. It should not be rewarded with American investments.

In English: www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/ar...

With the mercenary spyware industry booming, Apple VP Ivan Krstić tells WIRED that the company is also offering bonuses that could bring the max total reward for iPhone exploits to $5 million. www.wired.com/story/apple-...

[9/10] “It is very concerning that EU bodies' and member states' 💶money may be going into funding the spyware industry,” says @accessnow.org's @natynettle.bsky.social. “This in turn breeds corruption and abuse. There should be strict scrutiny applied to these types of investments.”

⚖️ 🔍 My new op-ed for @justsecurity.org + @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social about the opportunities & dangers of discovery in U.S. spyware litigation

Spoke to @businessinsider.com about Russia's wide-scale internet shutdowns and their devastating effect on the regular people and the country's digital economy. www.businessinsider.com/russia-econo...

⚖️ An important ECtHR ruling that some may have missed: The Court ruled that Russia breached Free Expression rights by imposing excessive fines on Google for failure to remove YouTube channels & videos critical of the gov + suspending sanctioned pro-gov Tsargrad TV accounts

Das israelische Staatstrojaner-Unternehmen Paragon hat auch eine GmbH in Deutschland. Die Bundesregierung verweigert eine Antwort, ob deutsche Behörden mit diesen Firmen in Kontakt sind. Gefragt hatte ‪@donatavogtschmidt.bsky.social‬. dserver.bundestag.de/btd/21/004/2...

Incredible news!

In Belarus, the husband of opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya,Syarhey, has been released,along with several other prisoners They had been sentenced following the attempted overthrow of Lukashenko in 2020 Their release coincided with the visit of Kellogg to Belarus

Russian hackers continue targeting civil society with phishing. Excellent new investigation by @citizenlab.ca and Google uncovers sophisticated phishing attack against prominent Russia expert Keir Giles. The hackers were impersonating US State Department. citizenlab.ca/2025/06/russ...

New: *Another* Italian journalist was targeted using Paragon’s spyware, per @citizenlab.ca www.reuters.com/business/med...

New bombshell report from Citizen Lab confirming with high confidence that Italian Fanpage.it journalist Ciro Pellegrino + anonymous European journalist were targeted with Paragon’s Graphite mercenary spyware. This scandal is not going away… citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs...

Various agencies are in possession of lists of confirmed or potential victims, but it’s not clear if the tallies are consistent. CISA, for instance, has a list of both telecom and IT companies, but an FBI tabulation shows different entities. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

Spoke to @suzannesmalley.bsky.social about the ongoing Paragon spyware scandal in Italy. If Paragon indeed offered help investigating Francesco Cancellato’s case and Italian gov refused it, it puts the conclusions of the COPASIR report under question…

Russian authorities imposed a wide scale mobile #internetshutdowns 🛜 in 30+ regions of Russia during the WWII Victory Day celebrations. Here is the statement from the #KeepItOn coalition www.accessnow.org/press-releas...

NSO to pay almost 168 million in damages! Congrats to WhatsApp on this historic (yes, historic) jury verdict against NSO Group! This is also a win for all the researchers, advocates & victims who have been tirelessly exposing NSO's abuses & advocating for justice! www.accessnow.org/press-releas...

Here is a screenshot the hacker provided of their access to TeleMessage's systems. This was a list of Customs and Border Protection officials. I called a bunch of them, confirmed the numbers do belong to CBP officials www.404media.co/the-signal-c...

Here is an example of a message that was obtained by the hacker. There are Signal group chats too. This is the risk of archiving systems: they're no longer end-to-end encrypted. It introduces massive new risk www.404media.co/the-signal-c...

New from 404 Media: the Signal clone the Trump administration uses was just hacked. TeleMessage makes a modified version of Signal that archives messages for government agencies, Waltz used it. A hacker got some users' messages, group chats. Hugely significant breach www.404media.co/the-signal-c...

The Signal Clone the Trump Admin Uses Was Hacked 🔗 www.404media.co/the-signal-c...

Spoke to @suzannesmalley.bsky.social @therecordmedia.bsky.social about the high stakes of the ongoing WhatsApp v NSO trial. After spending the past decade profiting from human rights abuses & undermining digital security, NSO may finally have to pay big damages. therecord.media/nso-whatsapp...

A prominent European Parliament member was the victim of what is believed to be a cyber-espionage operation tied to her role as chair of the chamber's Iran delegation, she told POLITICO.

"NSO’s strategy has been to try to attack the rep of civil society victims, claiming that they were in fact criminals/terrorists & therefore deserved to be hacked. The court’s ruling will make it very difficult for #NSO to launch such attacks." @natynettle.bsky.social cyberscoop.com/whatsapp-nso...

Spoke to @timstarks.bsky.social from @cyberscoop.bsky.social about the latest WhatsApp v NSO ruling. Judge Hamilton's decision protects NSO's civil society victims from re-victimization and future attacks against their privacy, reputation, and character. cyberscoop.com/whatsapp-nso...

"NSO has become a toxic brand that is widely associated not just with #humanrights abuses but also with #nationalsecurity threats to US, UK, France, and other countries." @natynettle.bsky.social @accessnow.org www.wired.com/story/nso-gr...

⚠️The 🇺🇸US has now signed onto the Pall Mall Process' Code of Practice for States: www.gov.uk/government/p... Important insights in @politico.com @maggiemiller.bsky.social by @natynettle.bsky.social @jsrailton.bsky.social @k8em0.bsky.social.

In the latest blow to #NSO in the WhatsApp case, the judge ruled that NSO can't argue at trial that their clients used Pegasus to investigate terrorism & other crimes while also not disclosing anything about these clients & their investigations. NSO can't eat their cake & have it too!

Cory Booker has taken the Senate floor and plans to filibuster as long as he’s physically able to protest the complete disregard for the rule of law by Trump and Musk. Watch here: www.c-span.org/event/us-sen...

Reminder ☝️ When Putin couldn’t run for President for the 3rd consecutive term, he appointed Medvedev to run & made himself the PM. Then they swapped roles after 1 term & changed the Constitution to allow Putin to serve till 2036. It didn’t happen overnight… www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ja...

Please consider supporting Mediazona, a major source of independent information about political repression in Russia and the war in Ukraine.

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. Mediazona is struggling. We’ve tracked 100K Russian casualties in Ukraine. Covered political prisoners repression. We survived Putin’s censors. Our reporters risk prison. Our editors will now work without pay. We need your help: en.zona.media/article/2025...

Hundreds join protest against Hamas in northern Gaza

It's never a bad time to take a look at your online accounts and see if you spot a weird device or login. We have a comprehensive guide on how to check if your Gmail, Apple ID, Facebook, IG, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, etc have been hacked. techcrunch.com/2025/03/25/h...

Phone security has been an achilles heel for every recent administration. Growing list of countries can silently hack phones with "zero-click" attacks (no link to click or file to download). Partly thanks to mercenary spyware players like NSO Group (they make Pegasus)... 1/

I forgot to mention this because of all of The Things, but I did a proper NBC TikTok about who's behind this! Look at me:

The defunct analytics company Flurry agreed to pay $3.5 million to resolve a class action lawsuit claiming it improperly harvested data from a widely used period tracking app. Data obtained included whether users masturbate, how often they have sex, if sex is painful therecord.media/flurry-pays-...

Signal's a great app to keep your communications secure, but make sure you know the identities of the users in your group chats. Our SSD guide on how to use Signal includes guidance on managing your group chat preferences.

Signal is a great privacy tool, but it isn’t magic. And even if you’re not discussing war plans in your group chat, it’s a good idea to know the limits of encryption. Read our piece on what Signal can—and can’t—do for you here: www.wired.com/story/encryp...

This is going beyond even what autocracies like Russia are doing www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Small 🇮🇹Italian cyber intelligence firm Negg recently won a contract to provide its services to the office of PM Giorgia Meloni "after #Paragon was exposed," according to Intelligence Online sources. "The firm is developing a 1-click spyware called VBiss." www.intelligenceonline.com/surveillance...

Want an introduction to digital surveillance, and how to protect your communications with others? Check out our Surveillance Self-Defense write-up.

This is what journalists and other civil society actors are facing for exposing powerful hacking companies. Sending solidarity and support to @raphae.li www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...