Investigating Targeted Espionage: Methods, Findings, Implications
Channel: CPI Waterloo
Date: 2021-11-12

A joint keynote talk for CPI Cybersecurity Month 2021 and IEEE ISTAS21, from Professor Ron Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

"The Citizen Lab has been undertaking investigations into targeted espionage for well over a decade. This path-breaking research has uncovered widespread global harms and an alarming spread of authoritarian practices across borders connected to a burgeoning and widely abused commercial surveillance industry. In his keynote, Deibert explains the methods, findings and implications of the Citizen Lab's research for human rights and global security."

https://uwaterloo.ca/cybersecurity-privacy-institute/events/cpi-cybersecurity-month-2021
https://attend.ieee.org/istas-2021/istas21-speakers/

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro: Who are CPI and Ron Deibert?
1:57 Apple & Zero-Clicks
3:22 Where did this Spyware come from? 
5:00 Who is Citizen Lab?
6:36  The 3 victims of NSO's Pegasus Spyware 
14:44 NSO's Creation of Zero-Click Software & Affected Countries
15:03 The first instance of this zero click: WhatsApp
15:56 Attacks in Rwanda, India, Spain and Togo 
16:42 Attacks on Al Jazeera
17:52 2021 Summer Pegasus project
20:06 New York Times Journalist hacked by Pegasus
21:34 Other mercenary groups: past and present
21:53 Hacking Team
22:11 FinFisher
23:06 Cyber Bit
24:56 Candiru
25:45 Circles
26:43 What is driving this growth of commercial spyware?
32:17 How can we solve this problem?
32:44 Worldwide government changes
34:08 Is a Global Moratorium possible?
34:26 Europe's Journey: Progress and Bumps
Other solutions
35:09 Litigation and Criminal Prosecution
36:37 Multi-Prolonged Community Approach: Journalism, Tech Platforms, Advocacy & Legal Support and Civil Society
38:03 Q&A Session
39:01 As a phone user, is there a way to find out if your phone has been compromised?
41:52 Is there really no legislation against selling spy rights spyware? 
43:40 Does Canada have any sort of strategy for dealing with these threats? Related question: if it's true that NSO doesn't just sell hacking software but actually operates an online hacking service on behalf of its clients, how come its execs haven't been apprehended across various jurisdictions for computer fraud and abuse? 
47:23 It would seem that government might find the spyware useful in the fight against terrorism money laundering and organized crime. What is your view on this?
51:05 Would  incentives against deploying a spyware would be a better approach rather than you know policing by the government?
52:05 Have citizen lab employees being targeted b y some of these surveillance tools?
52:57 Is there any way to protect researchers because one of the questions i wanted to brought up How are universities are protecting their researchers?
54:27 Should there be a communication app developed to avoid opening links basic fixtures for people  in sensitive locations (ie. Whatsapp's priotrizing feature development). Related question: What are the ways in which AI and machine learning fit in this situation? 
56:58 Conclusion