C4ADS

06/18/2026

Join C4ADS Senior Director of Analysis Mollie Zapata for The Stimson Center’s AI and Scams: Beyond the Hype — a conversation on how AI is reshaping online fraud on both sides of the equation.

Next week, she’ll be on a panel with other experts from Google, OpenAI, and ChongLuaDao to discuss how transnational criminal organizations are using AI to enhance their scam operations.

📅 June 25 | 10:30 AM ET
📍 In-person and online

RSVP 👇

Join us for a discussion about how both criminal actors and trusted platform providers are using artificial intelligence, and what AI means for the future of fighting fraud

06/18/2026

Last month we hosted our first C4ADS happy hour of the year — It was great to see so many familiar faces, meet new ones, and kick off the start of summer with amazing conversations!

If you would like to be notified about future happy hours, sign up for our mailing list.
https://c4ads.org/contact/

06/17/2026

Applications for C4ADS’ fall internships are open! We’re offering opportunities with six different teams, ranging from operations to analysis. Apply now to join us in our mission to detect and disrupt the illicit networks that threaten global peace and security!

Apply 👇
https://c4ads.org/internships/

06/16/2026

ICYMI: The electronic devices we use every day may have a link to conflict coltan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

A year-long Global Witness investigation — supported by C4ADS trade data — traced coltan from M23-controlled mines in eastern DRC through Rwanda's export system to smelters in China and Kazakhstan, and from there into the supply chains of major global brands.

Read 👇

Conflict coltan smuggled from war-torn DRC is finding its way into global markets and popular consumer products, despite due diligence systems

06/11/2026

Web scraping is one of OSINT most powerful tools but brings complicated ethical debates.

In our newest Data in Motion article, C4ADS' data team examines the ethical questions that surround web scraping publicly available information: from “public” government registries to edge cases involving free accounts, and the risk of accidentally crashing a poorly-designed website.

Read 👇
https://c4ads.org/tech-bulletin/to-scrape-or-not-to-scrape/

C4ADS is a nonprofit organization with a mission to defeat the illicit networks that threaten global peace and security.

05/27/2026

NEW: As Beijing accelerates efforts to build a “digital China” and increases the development of data centers, new C4ADS analysis shows that this infrastructure — used to expand surveillance capabilities in the Uyghur region — relies heavily on a combination of domestic and Western tech (including from companies like Dell, Intel, and Nvidia).

Hardwired Repression explores how data centers support the large-scale processing of biometric data, communications records, and behavioral monitoring, while examining the regulatory implications surrounding export controls and systematic monitoring linked to surveillance infrastructure in the Uyghur region.

Read the report 👇

Data centers are an essential component of China's expansive mass surveillance system in the Uyghur region, quietly processing biometric and behavioral data to target ethnic minorities — yet they remain the least scrutinized component of this digital architecture, even as compatibility with Americ...

05/08/2026

Belarus has quietly become a key player in Russian arms production, but only half of the network powering that dynamic has been sanctioned.

A new investigation from our partner the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) found that 58 Belarusian enterprises supplied 41 Russian arms manufacturers with more than $1.2 billion in goods. Only 29 of those 58 suppliers face Western sanctions.

Every unsanctioned supplier represents a gap in accountability, continuing to cost lives.

Read more👇

C4ADS partner the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) finds 58 Belarusian enterprises supplied Russian arms manufacturers with over $1.2 billion in goods since 2022 — with shipment values doubling by 2024 — yet nearly half of identified suppliers remain unsanctioned, leaving a critical and clo...

05/07/2026

ICYMI: C4ADS Senior Analyst Margaux Garcia spoke with Defense News providing technical insights, as they mapped over 160 cargo flights linking Russia to Algeria between March 2025 and April 2026. The flights coincide with sightings of Russian-made warplanes traveling in and out of Algeria, potentially linked to new-generation weaponry and marking the country as an important hub for Russian arms.

Read more 👇

Algeria has become a key customer for Russian arms at a time when Moscow has seen a slump in its military-export business after the invasion of Ukraine.

05/05/2026

We stand in solidarity with Access Now, the RightsCon community, and the thousands of advocates, researchers, and journalists who had their plans upended days before RightsCon was set to begin.

Per Access Now's own statement, RightsCon's cancellation followed foreign interference tied to the participation of select civil society members. When Access Now declined to exclude those voices, the Zambian government shut the conference down just days before it was set to begin. This is transnational repression in action: states using diplomatic leverage to shrink the spaces where voices they perceive as inconvenient gather.

At C4ADS, we investigate and analyze how malign influence can operate through formal and informal channels. The tactics on display in Lusaka — pressure applied through quiet diplomatic channels, with the goal of excluding specific communities from civic space — are patterns we document across a range of contexts. They are not exceptional. They are a strategy.

What happened to RightsCon is a reminder of why the work of this community matters, and why the organizations doing it need to be supported. We look forward to standing alongside Access Now and the broader digital rights field when RightsCon convenes again.

Read the full statement from the RightsCon team 👇

Our official statement to the digital rights community about why RightsCon 2026 will not take place in Zambia

05/01/2026

This Sunday, May 3, is International Leopard Day — and we’re taking a moment to highlight the need for the conservation and protection of this species and their habitat.

C4ADS has collected detailed information on over 1,100 leopard seizures since 2013, supporting conservation organizations in their efforts to curb poaching and trafficking.

Check out the C4ADS Wildlife Seizure Dashboard to do your own analysis of publicly reported leopard seizures and other wildlife categories!

Explore 👇
https://wildlifedashboard.c4ads.org/