Initiatives

Every day, the team at Sapper Labs devotes itself to making the world a better, safer place.

Peacekeeping

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

Community Advocacy

Sapper Labs believes in equality and justice for all. Many Sapper team members act as advocates in their local communities, supporting equal rights, opportunity and security. . Sapper Labs team members are active agents of several defence and security groups across Canada and globally. We uphold values of fairness, respect and equality in our business and as members of the community.

Human Rights & War Crimes

Sapper Labs provides software and support to many international human rights and war crimes organizations, from monitoring the war in Ukraine to documenting human rights issues in Syria, Africa and other trouble spots.

Child Safety

Sapper Labs provides training, software and support to a myriad of anti-trafficking and child safety organizations . Sapper team members have played critical roles in countering child exploitation in Canada. Our team members have assisted on many international child safety investigations and continue to do so pro-bono.

Existential Threats

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

Disaster Response Recovery & Emergency Management

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 2022 storms in Eastern Canada.

Counter Radicalization & Extremism Research

Sapper Labs has decades of deep first-hand operational experience in counterterrorism and extremism. We have assisted and provided technological support to many academic research initiatives at universities across the globe, including Simon Fraser University, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the University of California system (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.

Investigative Journalism

Sapper Labs is engaged in systematic inquiry, original deep-field research and investigative/intelligence reporting involving 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. This collaborative community probes subjects that advance narratives of privacy, safety, security, conflict, crime, social justice, accountability, and human rights, while pre-bunking and debunking dis-, mis-, and mal information. Sapper Labs has also played a key role in pioneering new investigative techniques for the community.

Cyber Norms & Deterrence

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

Open Internet

Sapper Labs is a strong proponent of a global open internet and is committed to protecting and advancing freedom of expression and privacy through expert advice and technology. 

Privacy

Sapper Labs has strongly advocated 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.

Fundamental Research & Academic Outreach and Education

Sapper Labs has successfully delivered several game-changing solutions through Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS), and we’ve published many academic reports with the Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security (MINDS) program.

We’re 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.

Counter Foreign Interference & Influence

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

Intelligence Oversight & Review

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

Strategic Foresighting

Sapper Labs researches significant trends shaping the future security environment, including changing demographics, resource competition, environmental stresses, globalization, economics, governance, urbanization, geopolitics, and 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, foresight that governments, industry, academia, and civil society widely use.