OTTAWA–University of Toronto researchers say they were the target of “sinister” and “underhanded” approaches aimed at compromising their research into commercial spyware.

The Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs revealed Friday that two of their researchers were contacted by individuals apparently interested in their personal lives.

“Each of the contacts purported to show an interest in the staff members’ personal, non-Citizen Lab related interests,” a statement released by the research centre read.

“In each case, the interactions turned to Citizen Lab’s research on commercial spyware, and specifically our research on (Israeli cyber espionage company) NSO Group. We have no evidence NSO Group itself is responsible for the outreach.”

Citizen Lab bills itself as an interdisciplinary research lab at the “intersection of information and communications technologies, human rights, and global security.” In practice, it exposes operations and comment on modern forms of surveillance, both by nation states and private actors.

Citizen Lab has exposed state-sponsored hacking across the globe, and has been a key Canadian voice in explaining the techniques and actions of Western security and intelligence agencies.

The researchers, led by Ronald Deibert, have also exposed questionable practices by private-sector surveillance companies such as NSO Group. Citizen Lab has reported NSO Group had sold surveillance software to countries that used it to spy on journalists and activists. For instance, they alleged that NSO Group software was used to spy on Washington Post journalist Jamaal Khashoggi’s friend before Khashoggi was murdered.

NSO Group did not immediately respond to the Star’s request for comment. In a statement to the Associated Press, NSO Group denied any involvement with the approaches to Citizen Lab researchers.

Citizen Lab said that one of the approaches was focused on Bahr Abdul Razzak, who immediately alerted his Citizen Lab colleagues.

Another Citizen Lab researcher, John Scott-Railton, was contacted some time afterwards. Citizen Lab allowed the interaction to take place, observed by the Associated Press, in New York last week.

“My immediate gut feeling was: this is fake,” Scott-Railton told the AP.

In a statement, Deibert said that the incidents should give pause to any groups that “work in areas that expose wrongdoing through evidence-based research.

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“This attempt — by whatever organization was responsible for this operation — used an indirect approach involving human intelligence gathering and nefarious means,” Deibert wrote.

“At Citizen Lab, we take all security risks seriously. I want to congratulate the two researchers for being alert and taking immediate and appropriate action in response.”