2025 - Week 45
What happened in the world#
- The big news of the week is the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York City. Beyond his socialist politics going back to economic issues rarely addressed in large cities, seeing someone so bold and following the campaign has been fascinating (not even mentioning his hip-hop songs).
- The Sudanese RSF militia agrees to a ceasefire.
- Two events showing China’s ability to shut down people researching and talking about human rights issues in the country: UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China and Chinese Authorities Shut Down Film Festival in New York.
- UN Security Council lifts sanctions on Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.
- Pentagon names new press corps from far-right outlets after reporter walkout.
Technology - for good and for bad#
- The Italian spyware scandal continues with a political consultant targeted with Paragon spyware.
- In the meantime, legal groups are suing Trump administration over use of Israeli spyware on immigrant communities, while NSO Group is getting a new US leadership close to the authorities.
- Palo Alto found a commercial spyware targeting Samsung Android phones with 0-days that they attribute to Protected AE, a successor of the UAE company Dark Matter.
- The bubble is growing: OpenAI Signs $38 Billion Deal With Amazon.
- Some more information about the L3Harris Trenchant boss who sold cyber exploits to Russia, he apparently sold 8 exploits over several years for only $1.3 million.
- Quote posts are finally in Mastodon.
- FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site.
- A.I. Is Making Death Threats Way More Realistic.
- EFF Teams Up With AV Comparatives to Test Android Stalkerware Detection by Major Antivirus Apps.
Digital Investigations#
- An online search form in BreachForum data
- New Bellingcat investigation: Geolocating Darfur Killings of Those Escaping Al Fashir
What I did#
- I attended a Bellingcat talk on Mapping military power.
- I am continuing to update my selected bibliography on technology used in Intimate Partner Violence.
Reading & listening#
- Hidden in Plain Bytes: Investigating Interpersonal Account Compromise with Data Exports.
- I listened to all three episodes of this great series from Lawpod: Can the Record be Trusted? Prospects and Challenges of Human Rights Documentation and Archiving in the Digital Age . I highly recommend it!
- An episode of Curious Canadian History: Internment to Exile: The Japanese-Canadian War Experience.
- GIJN published a great blog post of publications that benefited from the training sessions we did on digital threats: How Digital Threats Training Has Powered Innovative Cyber Investigations Around the World.
- 10 things everyone really ought to know about the AI Bubble.
This week in music#
I am a big fan of this cover of the song l’affiche rouge by Feu Chaterton, a cover from Léo Ferré song that put music over Aragon’s poem of the same name. The song talk about the WWII propaganda after the arrest of 23 communist resistants (most of them Jewish) from the Manouchian group.