February 28, 2025
In a significant breakthrough, CyberHUB-AM played a crucial role in uncovering a spyware attack on David Yambio, a prominent human rights activist in Italy. Yambio, who is the president and co-founder of “Refugees in Libya“, has been a vocal critic of the Italian government’s migrant pact with Libya, describing it as “a death sentence” for many migrants.
Yambio was alerted by Apple about the spyware targeting his phone. This attack is particularly alarming given Yambio’s efforts to support the International Criminal Court (ICC) by providing evidence of abuses suffered by migrants and refugees in Libyan detention camps and prisons. The activist, who had some prior contacts with a team-member of CyberHUB-AM, asked for help and advice and our team performed some initial tests, confirmed that it was infected with spyware and linked David Yambio up with Citizenlab, at University of Toronto, for further analysis.
In a statement, Citizen Lab said it was continuing to investigate Yambio’s case.
Read the full article on The Guardian.