Global — This Tuesday, a report released by Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog group at the University of Toronto, revealed details of a widespread hacking-for-hire operation that has been targeting email accounts of government officials, journalists, banks, environmental activists, organizations and other individuals for at least four years. The report discovered a large cluster of targeted individuals and organizations, including 350.org, that were engaged in environmental issues in the US. Allegedly, these organizations were all linked to the #ExxonKnew campaign, which highlights documents that point to Exxon’s decades-long knowledge of climate change.
In response to the report, May Boeve, Executive Director at 350.org, said:
“As an international organization campaigning to stop the climate crisis, we are frequently targeted by phishing attacks. We have been contacted by Citizen Lab and provided examples of phishing we received to aid in their work analyzing online attacks against advocacy organizations. If the investigation demonstrates that Exxon is behind these attacks, it only shows how far the fossil fuel industry will go to silence critics and avoid accountability for fueling climate change.
“What we have to say to them is that no attack — either online or offline — will intimidate us. We will continue exposing Big Oil until they are held accountable for decades of denial, deception and severe climate impacts that have destroyed tens of thousands of lives. Those financing and profiting from death, pollution, the deterioration of ecosystems and the displacement of entire populations must pay for the damage they cause. And we won’t stop until they do.”
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