Global 
Initiatives

Leadership at Sapper Labs have been active in global information peacekeeping operations for three decades countering dis-mis-mal-information and propaganda. Most recently, the team produced comprehensive research on Russian cognitive warfare activities.

Sapper Labs believes in equality and justice for all. Numerous Sapper team members act as advocates in their local communities. Sapper’s team has supported activists to end gender-based violence, aided in the fight for 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, and provided investigative support to the falsely accused.  Sapper Labs believes that each of our team members has a duty to uphold our beliefs of fairness and equality not only in our business but as members of our community.

Sapper Labs provides software and support to numerous human rights and war crimes organizations internationally. From monitoring the war in Ukraine to documenting human rights issues in Syria. Our Chief Innovation Officer, Justin Seitz, formerly held a technical advisory position at the International Criminal Court, Office of the Prosecutor, as a digital evidence preservation expert. Currently, Justin is an advisory board member at the prestigious University of California Berkeley’s Human Rights Lab. Sapper Labs investigations have provided evidence for Sanctioning of Russian entities to the International Criminal Court.

Sapper Labs provides training, software and support to a myriad of anti-trafficking and child safety organizations such as Trace Labs (https://tracelabs.org), The Anti-Trafficking Intelligence Initiative (https://followmoneyfightslavery.org/) and The National Child Protection Task Force (https://ncptf.org). Sapper team members have played key roles in countering child exploitation in Canada through the Canadian Coalition Against Internet Child Exploitation and establishing Project Cleanfeed Canada (Cybertip.ca). The Hunchly Dark Web report is sent to over 10,000 readers daily and is designed to be a free resource for investigators to find and track Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on the Tor Network. Sapper team members have assisted on numerous child safety investigations internationally and continue to do so on a pro-bono basis. Hunchly Mobile, a free evidence organization tool, was released in 2021 as a means for witnesses and victims of crime to put together evidence packages.

Our Chief Innovation Officer is a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (https://c4ads.org), a non-profit organization formed to fight international illicit networks that threaten peace and security.

Sapper Labs is involved in foresighting, planning and advocacy in the context of the future of the planet, the environment, fighting climate change, and responding to global pandemics. Our analysts published the Future Security Environment report.

Sapper Labs donates time and resources to provide critical intelligence and situational awareness to first responders during national and regional emergencies and disasters including the recent 2022 storms in Eastern Canada.

Sapper Labs has decades of deep first-hand operational experience in counterterrorism and extremism. We have assisted and provided technological support to numerous academic research initiatives at universities across the globe including Simon Fraser University, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the universities of California (UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSB). Our Chief Intelligence Officer has led initiatives under the Kanishka Program to provide research on terrorism-related issues affecting Canada, such as preventing and countering violent extremism.

Sapper Labs is a sponsor and partner of the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) (https://nw3c.org), the primary training and technological assistance resource for law enforcement in the United States of America to fight financial crime. Our team provides training and support to financial regulators internationally.

Sapper Labs is engaged in systematic inquiry, original deep-field research and investigative/intelligence reporting involving the unearthing truth and injustice. We work with an international collective of researchers, OSINT analysts, investigators and citizen journalists using critical reasoning and rigorous fact-checking of open source and social media public records, big data, proprietary intelligence and confidential sources to probe a variety of subjects that advance narratives of privacy, safety, security, conflict, crime, social justice, accountability, and human rights while prebunking/debunking dis-mis-mal information. Sapper Labs has also played a key role in pioneering new investigative techniques for the community.

Sapper Labs is an active Canadian representative and contributed to the Cyber Norms Working Group at MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. We have written extensively on this subject as well as deception and de-escalation models.

Sapper Labs is a strong proponent for a global open Internet and is committed to protecting and advancing freedom of expression and privacy through expert advice and technology. (https://globalnetworkinitiative.org)

During the pandemic, Sapper Labs provided accurate and timely pro-bono health Intelligence to Canadian hospitals and actively volunteered resources and intelligence to the COVID19 cyber task force dedicated to keeping Canadians safe against foreign actors targeting our healthcare system, and countering dis-information campaigns (infodemic). We have also donated time to ensuring Canada’s athletes were safe at the Olympics despite pervasive state surveillance.

Sapper Labs has been a strong advocate for personal privacy in the digital age. Our leadership helped co-author a Special Report to Parliament - Checks and Controls: Reinforcing Privacy Protection and Oversight for the Canadian Intelligence Community in an Era of Cyber-Surveillance, for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Sapper Labs has successfully delivered a number of game changing solutions through the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) and published numerous academic reports with the Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security (MINDS) program.

We have been active members of the Institute for Quantum Computing Security initiative and Smart Cybersecurity Network (SERENE-RISC) - a Knowledge-Mobilization Network created to help protect Canadian individuals and organizations from current threats. Members of our team lecture at a post-graduate program at University of Ottawa on matters of cyber defence, security, privacy, and intelligence.

Sapper Labs maintains active programs to detect, report and counter foreign interference and influence of Canadian institutions, infrastructures, and individuals. 

At Sapper Labs, we believe in strong oversight and accountability. Our Chief Intelligence Officer served as a special advisor to both the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), the Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner (OCSEC) and appeared as an expert witness in front of Parliamentary and Senate Committees on National Security. Member of national security and intelligence advisor working group.

Sapper Labs researches significant trends shaping the future security environment including changing demographics, resource competition, environmental stresses, globalization, economics, governance, urbanization, geopolitics, and the unprecedented advancement in science and technology. We have produced several Cyber Futures reports. Our Red Cell uses out-of-the box thinking and over-the-horizon technology foresighting that is widely used by governments, industry, academia, and civil society.