Natalia Krapiva 👩🏻‍💻🕊

⚖️ My new op-ed for @just_security + @AtlanticCouncil about the opportunities & dangers of discovery in U.S. spyware litigation 🙌 Here is what lawyers, judges, activists, tech companies, researchers, funders & policymakers who work on #spyware need to know... 🧵 1/

Media Defence has joined @accessnow and 9 other CSOs in filing an amicus brief urging the US Ninth Circuit to uphold the injunction against NSO's Pegasus spyware. Journalists are a particular target of Pegasus, with its use having a disastrous impact on source protection. 👇

Thanks to @accessnow, @CenDemTech, @pressfreedom, @EFF, International Justice Clinic at @UCILaw, @MediaDefence, @privacyint, Reporters Without Borders, Agora International Human Rights Group, Data Rights, CyberPeace Institute, and @knightcolumbia

Thank you to the civil society organizations who filed amicus briefs in our case against NSO that secured the first permanent injunction ever issued against a spyware firm. No single company can take on the spyware industry alone. Privacy and security advocates do critical work that makes accountability possible. We're grateful to be in this fight together:

ExpressVPN, @torproject, Tuta, Mozilla, @EFF and Mullvad, alongside 13 other organizations advocating for digital privacy rights, have published an open letter. In the letter, they express serious concerns regarding the age verification measures planned for implementation across the internet following the introduction of a new child protection law. The organizations argue that forcing users to prove their age across most websites and online services could severely undermine privacy, anonymity, and the open nature of the internet. The central message of the letter is that protecting children should not come at the cost of jeopardizing the freedom, security, and privacy of all internet users. The signatories are calling for more balanced, privacy preserving solutions to be developed instead. The 19 organizations that signed the letter are: 1- Big Brother Watch 2- Defend Digital Me 3- Electronic Frontier Foundation 4- ExpressVPN 5- Gamers Voice 6- Global Partners Digital 7- Index on Censorship 8- Internet Society 9- Mozilla 10- Mullvad 11- IPVanish 12- NO2ID 13- Open Rights Group 14- Privacymatters 15- Proton 16- Stop Killing Games 17- Tor Project 18- Tuta 19- VPN Trust Initiative

Access Now alongside ten other civil society organizations joined in filing an amicus brief urging the U.S. court to uphold the permanent injunction against NSO Group and protect encryption from Pegasus spyware. Read more: accessnow.org/press-release/…

We submitted an amicus brief in @WhatsApp v NSO case urging the 9th Cir. Court to protect WhatsApp & its users from Pegasus spyware! Grateful to our fellow amici & counsel @BakerHostetler for the legal support in the case!

These two Iranian women were both shot in the eyes by the Islamic Republic for one simple “crime”: demanding freedom in the streets and refusing to hide their beautiful hair. With the help of some German organization, we managed to help smuggle them out of Iran. Now they live in Germany. Recently, I met Farideh first time, the woman in white, who lost both of her eyes after regime forces shot her in the face. She told me she still believes she will see again. I asked her softly, “Really?” She smiled, a huge, beautiful smile and said: “Yes. I believe I will get my eyes back.” Then Kosar hugged her tightly and suddenly started crying. Later, she told me why. She said she felt guilty because she still has one eye left… while her friend lost both. I cried too. Imagine surviving bullets, exile, surgeries, pain… and still carrying guilt for seeing with one eye while your friend lives in darkness. I wish I could do something bigger than just inviting them Europe to Europe, or giving them platform and telling their stories. If technology ever makes that possible, I would give one of my own eyes to Farideh.

To be fair, Kremlin has been using humor / parody-focused influencers since at least 2018: originally to attack domestic opponents (Navalny team and others); post-2022 to smear Zelensky and Ukraine. While they are targeting only domestic audience and are having a more modest reach, most features of the Iran propaganda listed in the thread apply to them. Some of them also gained initial followers boost with Ru embassies around the world. Some examples that are still active: t.me/indeec_1937 t.me/radiostydoba

For the first time, hackers have used AI to discover and exploit a zero-day. Spyware companies that hack into devices for the purpose of surveillance and data extraction are primed to exploit this new opportunity, writes @CSI_Jen. atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/hac…

An independent cybersecurity review obtained by Important Stories found that Telegram exposes persistent device identifiers that could allow passive tracking of users across networks and locations. The findings support a 2025 OCCRP and IStories investigation into Telegram’s infrastructure and its links to a Russian network engineer with alleged ties to the FSB. occrp.org/en/news/review…

In a new report, HRW finds that the implementation and oversight of the EU regulatory framework governing export of surveillance technologies has serious flaws, resulting in the technology being sold to those who have previously used it in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. 🧵⤵️

In April, The Newsground reported that the Presidential Office of El Salvador's Bukele secretly sought to obtain spyware in 2024. Today, El Faro confirms that one of the men involved in the mission is a senior Salvadoran military officer.

Signal warns it would pull out of Canada if made to comply with lawful access bill theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic…

Exclusive image I obtained of a new type of surveillance and intelligence technology These are programs that track & map Starlink terminals used by millions across the world to connect online - and in some case can even ID users @Haaretz @haaretzcom haaretz.com/israel-news/se…

Top sources include Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, India, and Singapore (~$7.5B combined), alongside dozens of other either hybrid or fully authoritarian regimes funding American higher education.

New data shows nearly $9B has flowed from autocratic regimes into US universities since 2014 — reaching elite schools like Harvard, MIT, Yale, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgetown.

New @hrw report shows how EU fails to control surveillance tech exports to repressive regimes #DualUseRegulation will be evaluated in 2026 - these loopholes need to be fixed! #HumanRights don’t stop at our borders. hrw.org/preview-link/n… 1/9

Zambia’s de facto cancelation of RightsCon an attack on rights and freedoms: Special Rapporteur ohchr.org/en/statements-…

Two Israeli firms have developed tech to locate and even ID users of @Starlink , Elon Musk's satellite internet service, a @haaretzcom investigation found. This is done thru processing of commercial and adtech data sources. big @omerbenj story haaretz.com/israel-news/se…

NEW: A @hrw report published today finds that despite a regulatory framework designed to prevent abuses, 🇪🇺EU is currently doing **too little** to prevent sales & transfers of #surveillance technology by its members to governments with a track record of serious human rights violations. 🧵