Dark Basin DISCOVERED_BY Citizen Lab
Citizen Lab investigated the phishing infrastructure and named the hacking group Dark Basin.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 79 Details
“Dark Basin was what Citizen Lab named this hacking group.”
Organisation
organisation:citizen_lab
Also: The Citizen Lab, the Citizen Lab
Research group that investigates government espionage and spyware targeting journalists, activists, and civil society.
Research group that investigates government espionage and spyware targeting journalists, activists, and civil society.
“I just forwarded it onto Citizen Lab”
“They basically do research on espionage going around against civil society.”
University of Toronto research group focused in the episode on investigating digital threats against journalists, human-rights defenders, and other civil-society targets.
“I’m a senior researcher at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School”
“Citizen Lab is all about protecting free expression, transparency, and accountability on the internet.”
Research organisation whose work on hacking campaigns and NSO Group was discussed as a target of an influence and information-gathering operation.
“John works for Citizen Lab and does investigative work to try to uncover hacking campaigns.”
“the main objective was learning about Citizen Lab’s work”
Research laboratory at the University of Toronto that investigates digital threats against civil society and researches Pegasus.
“I’m a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School.”
Research organisation described as working on forensics and evidence of spyware and exploit delivery against targeted populations.
“Citizen Lab and Amnesty International are also doing some really awesome work in this space”
University of Toronto research group that investigated mercenary spyware, discovered Predator samples, and analyzed infected phones.
“We first discovered samples of Predator back in November, December 2021”
| Direction | Predicate | Other entity | Origin | EP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| outgoing | USES | Open-source intelligence | Explicit | 79 |
| outgoing | PART_OF | University of Toronto’s Munk School | Derived | 100 |
| outgoing | ASSOCIATED_WITH | Meta | Explicit | 137 |
| incoming | DISCOVERED_BY | Dark Basin | Explicit | 79 |
| incoming | TARGETS | Black Cube operation against Citizen Lab | Explicit | 99 |
| incoming | MEMBER_OF | John Scott-Railton | Explicit | 99 |
| incoming | MEMBER_OF | John Scott-Railton | Explicit | 100 |
| incoming | DISCOVERED_BY | Pegasus | Explicit | 100 |
| incoming | DISCOVERED_BY | Predator | Explicit | 137 |
Dark Basin DISCOVERED_BY Citizen Lab
Citizen Lab investigated the phishing infrastructure and named the hacking group Dark Basin.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 79 Details
“Dark Basin was what Citizen Lab named this hacking group.”
Citizen Lab USES Open-source intelligence
Citizen Lab’s investigation relied on open-source intelligence and publicly available data.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 79 Details
“their work is rooted in open-source intelligence, or OSINT”
Black Cube operation against Citizen Lab TARGETS Citizen Lab
The operation sought information about Citizen Lab and potentially material that could discredit the lab's work.
Explicit Confidence 99% · John Scott-Railton EP 99 Details
“the main objective was learning about Citizen Lab’s work and then potentially finding something that could be used against the lab”
John Scott-Railton MEMBER_OF Citizen Lab
John Scott-Railton works for Citizen Lab and conducts investigative research there.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 99 Details
“John works for Citizen Lab and does investigative work”
John Scott-Railton MEMBER_OF Citizen Lab
John identifies himself as a senior researcher at Citizen Lab.
Explicit Confidence 99% · John Scott-Railton EP 100 Details
“I’m a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab”
Citizen Lab PART_OF University of Toronto’s Munk School
John describes Citizen Lab in connection with the University of Toronto’s Munk School.
Derived Confidence 88% · John Scott-Railton EP 100 Details
“at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School”
Pegasus DISCOVERED_BY Citizen Lab
Citizen Lab discovered and obtained a copy of Pegasus while investigating links sent to Ahmed Mansoor.
Explicit Confidence 96% · John Scott-Railton EP 100 Details
“we were actually able to grab the payload, the actual Pegasus deployment”
Predator DISCOVERED_BY Citizen Lab
Citizen Lab first discovered samples of Predator in late 2021.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Bill Marczak EP 137 Details
“We first discovered samples of Predator back in November, December 2021.”
Citizen Lab ASSOCIATED_WITH Meta
Citizen Lab shared its findings with Meta, which was independently investigating the spyware industry.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 137 Details
“They shared their findings with the security team at Meta, Facebook, who was also investigating”