“Targeted surveillance and other digital threats have been used around the world to harass, intimidate, silence and shrink civil society. The Security Lab’s main goal is to help human rights defenders, activists and journalists to fend off digital attacks, and seek justice and accountability when they do occur,” said Carolina Rocha da Silva, Operations Manager at Amnesty International’s Security Lab

Amnesty International’s Security Lab has launched new features on its website, adding to the existing range of tools, resources and research to support human rights defenders, activists, journalists and other civil society members against digital attacks, including spyware.

“Targeted surveillance and other digital threats have been used around the world to harass, intimidate, silence and shrink civil society. The Security Lab’s main goal is to help human rights defenders, activists and journalists to fend off digital attacks, and seek justice and accountability when they do occur,” said Carolina Rocha da Silva, Operations Manager at Amnesty International’s Security Lab.

“We hope our tools and resources will help to increase understanding of existing digital threats and offer fast, accessible support when attacks take place.”

One of the new features of the Security Lab website is a Digital Forensics Helpline for at-risk civil society members, the first step for targeted individuals to get support for digital threats.

“We now have a dedicated free-of-charge helpline for people who believe they have been targeted with spyware and other forms of digital threats. If you have strong indications of a potential attack, it is important to get a forensic check on your device,” 

said Carolina Rocha da Silva.

The Security Lab also created a Digital Security hub, which provides advice and resources to help human rights defenders and civil society members to improve their digital security. This includes links to relevant, accessible, and free-of-charge helplines provided by other organisations.

Both the Digital Forensics Helpline and Digital Security Hub can be found on the Security Lab’s website, together with all our cutting-edge research, news updates, Predator and Pegasus case studies, campaigns and details of the Digital Forensics Fellowship, as well as resources on what exactly is targeted surveillance.

The website is now available in Amnesty International’s core languages of English, Spanish, French and Arabic.

Due to the volume of requests, the Security Lab will only respond to support requests from at risk civil society members and will not be able to provide general digital security training or technical support.