This report explores the digital threats that civil society groups, journalists, and activists face, and the impacts of these threats on their work and activities in an increasingly unstable world. Each section covers a specific type of threat, discusses the impacts, and provides tips on protection and mitigation.

The types of threats covered in this report include:

• The use of commercial spyware and targeted surveillance,
• Phishing
• Account compromise
• Interception of communications and internet traffic
• Online harassment and gender-based violence
• Attacks against websites
• Platform censorship
• The seizure of devices

This report was authored by Afef Abrougui and combines desk research and findings from forensic analysis of digital attacks against civil society groups.

In authoring this report, Internews collaborated with Conexo, based in the Latin America and Caribbean region; CyberHub-AM, based in Armenia; SHARE Foundation, based in Serbia; MariaLab, based in Brazil; SocialTIC based in Mexico; Digital Security Lab Ukraine, based in Ukraine; and Jordan Open Source Society, based in Jordan.