We will say the unglamorous thing first: for most journalists, your first calls should be free, and they should be to these organizations — not to a paid service. They are independent, experienced with targeted threats, and they exist precisely for this. Here is who does what.
Access Now Digital Security Helpline — start here
The Access Now Digital Security Helpline is free and available 24/7, operates in multiple languages, and is built for journalists, activists, and human-rights defenders. Per their site, they triage your situation and connect you to deeper help when needed. For an acute “I think I’ve been hacked” moment, this is the best first contact.
The Citizen Lab
The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto is the research group behind much of what the public knows about mercenary spyware. They have analyzed the devices of targeted individuals as part of their research. They are a lab, not a hotline, but their published work and contacts are an authoritative reference — and Access Now can route the most serious cases toward research labs like them.
Amnesty International Security Lab
Amnesty’s Security Lab produced the forensic methodology and the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT) used to detect Pegasus. One honest caveat: Amnesty’s public forensic intake has been paused since April 2025 and remains paused as of June 2026 — so do not count on submitting a device to Amnesty directly right now. Use their published resources and methodology, and route urgent help through Access Now and Citizen Lab instead. We will update this page if that changes.
What these groups are not
Free helplines are triage and expert guidance; they are not a guaranteed, on-demand forensic lab for every case, and demand is high. They will be honest about what they can take on. Treat them as your first and best option, not a promise of a specific outcome or timeline.
If you later need paid, lab-grade confirmation
Sometimes a story, a legal matter, or your own certainty needs a formal examination with a court-ready record — the kind a free triage line is not set up to deliver. That is the one case where a paid examiner makes sense, and only after the free options. If you reach that point, see newsroom device-compromise response, and the broader forensics-for-journalists overviewfor how confirmation supports — never directs — your reporting.
