Citizen Lab Researchers Targeted by Undercover Operatives, Report Says

Researchers of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, a digital and human rights research group focused on cyber surveillance, had been targeted by undercover operatives, The Associated Press reported Saturday. The operatives met with Citizen Labs researchers while posing as potential donors, questioning them at length about investigations concerning Israeli surveillance. The two operatives focused specifically on work regarding Israeli cyber surveillance company NSO Group, The AP reported.

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Citizen Lab researchers were first to link spyware by NSO to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, finding evidence that NSO’s Pegasus spyware was used to take over the mobile phone of an associate of Khashoggi’s prior to his death. Citizen Lab had been tracking the activity of NSO for two years, publishing multiple reports on the company.

NSO develops and markets spyware that can remotely take over a smartphone via a seemingly benign text message, giving its operator full access to calls, messages, and any other data stored on the device. The Israeli firm says it sells exclusively to governments and law enforcement agencies.

Representatives of NSO have repeatedly denied connection to the Khashoggi murder.

The identity of the operatives had not been discovered, AP reported, adding that despite the operatives’ apparent focus on NSO, no connection was established between them and the Israeli spyware developer.

In response to Calcalist’s request for a comment Sunday, a spokeswoman for NSO said the company had nothing to do with the incident reported by the AP.