Net Alert brought together well respected researchers in the circumvention tech space to investigate targeted digital attacks against at-risk populations. Participating organizations and/or individuals include Open Effect, The Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, and professor Jedidiah Crandall at the University of New Mexico.
A main portion of OTF support involved investigating the privacy issues of popular consumer-grade technologies used by at-risk populations since the vulnerabilities and backdoors found in these tools can be utilized by state-sponsored attackers to surveil, censor, disrupt and target end-users. Other areas of focus for this research effort included targeted malware, network side channels and man-in-the-middle attacks. In addition to creating new bodies of knowledge, the project allowed researchers to test assumptions about previous work, develop a refined and validated methodology for communicating technical research and findings to at-risk populations, and improve the limited knowledge available of popular mobile applications in the global south.
Research findings were translated into six Net Alert reports designed to empower end-users to make better informed decisions about their technology usage. To ensure their accessibility, emphasis was put on visualizations and other non-text based media. In addition, each report was localized, translated and tailored according to the needs, use cases and threat models of each community.
Addressed problems
- Restrictive Internet filtering by technical methods (IP blocking, DNS filtering, TCP RST, DPI, etc.)
- Blocking, filtering, or modification of political, social, and/or religious content (including apps)
- Digital attacks against civil society
- Repressive surveillance or monitoring of communication
Objective(s)
- Research
Beneficiaries
- Academia
- Civil society
- General public
Region(s) archive
- Global
Technology attributes
- Desktop App
- Desktop client
- Mobile application (clientside)
