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Explore two decades of groundbreaking digital security and human rights investigations through this keynote presentation from Black Hat USA 2025. Discover how the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab has conducted "counter-intelligence for civil society" by exposing state cyber espionage and uncovering the global proliferation of mercenary spyware targeting journalists, activists, and human rights defenders. Learn about high-profile investigations that revealed surveillance around murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi's inner circle and domestic espionage campaigns spanning Mexico, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Thailand, El Salvador, and Italy. Understand how a small research team successfully disarmed cyber mercenaries while improving digital security for billions of users, and examine the personal risks faced by researchers who became targets themselves. Gain insights into the future challenges of AI-enabled subversion, Dark PR, and advertising intelligence, while exploring how public-interest research faces growing threats from rising despotism and authoritarianism. The presentation draws from real-world experiences and case studies documented in the book "Chasing Shadows," offering a comprehensive look at the evolving landscape of digital surveillance and the ongoing fight to protect civil society from state-sponsored cyber threats.
