Banned Books
Analysis of Censorship on Amazon.com

November 25, 2024

We analyze the system Amazon deploys on the US “amazon.com” storefront to restrict shipments of certain products to specific regions. We found 17,050 products that Amazon restricted from being shipped to at least one world region. – While many of the shipping restrictions are related to regulations involving WiFi, car seats, and other heavily regulated product categories, the most common product category restricted by Amazon in our study was books.

Featured Publications

October 15, 2024

App Privacy and Controls

Should We Chat, Too? Security Analysis of WeChat’s MMTLS Encryption Protocol

This report performs the first public analysis of MMTLS, the main network protocol used by WeChat, an app with over one billion users. The report finds that MMTLS is a modified version of TLS, however some of the modifications have introduced cryptographic weaknesses.

August 14, 2024

Targeted Threats

Rivers of Phish: Sophisticated Phishing Targets Russia’s Perceived Enemies Around the Globe

A sophisticated spear phishing campaign has been targeting Western and Russian civil society. In collaboration with Access Now, and with the participation of numerous civil society organizations, we uncover this operation and link it to COLDRIVER, a group attributed by multiple governments to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

April 23, 2024

App Privacy and Controls

The not-so-silent type: Vulnerabilities across keyboard apps reveal keystrokes to network eavesdroppers

In this report, we examine cloud-based pinyin keyboard apps from nine vendors (Baidu, Honor, Huawei, iFlyTek, OPPO, Samsung, Tencent, Vivo, and Xiaomi) for vulnerabilities in how the apps transmit user keystrokes. Our analysis found that eight of the nine apps identified contained vulnerabilities that could be exploited to completely reveal the contents of users’ keystrokes in transit. We estimate that up to one billion users could be vulnerable to having all of their keystrokes intercepted, constituting a tremendous risk to user security.

Lifting the lid off the Internet.

The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research and development at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. Learn more.

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Features & News

Keynote Session by Kate Robertson at the 2024 APSIM Conference

November 27, 2024

Events

We are thrilled to announce that Kate Robertson, Lawyer and senior research associate at the Citizen Lab will deliver a keynote at the upcoming Access, Privacy, Security, and Information Management Conference (APSIM). In her keynote, titled “In the World of Privacy Regulation, What’s the Constitution got to do with it?” Kate will take a behind-the-scenes… Read more »

Assistant Professor, Information Security

November 11, 2024

News

The Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto invites applications for a full-time tenure stream position in the area of Information Security. The appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2025. The… Read more »

Assistant Professor, Social Sciences and Digital Technologies

November 11, 2024

News

The Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto invites applications for a full-time tenure stream position in the area of Social Sciences and Digital Technologies. The appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor, with an expected start date of July… Read more »

Irene Poetranto on the panel “What the World Can Learn from Indonesia’s Democracy”

November 8, 2024

Events

On November 14, 2024, The Citizen Lab’s Irene Poetranto will participate in the panel “What the World Can Learn from Indonesia’s Democracy” hosted by the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

The Citizen Lab at the Hague Program’s 2024 Conference on International Cyber Security

November 5, 2024

Events

On November 13, 2024, The Citizen Lab’s director Ron Deibert will deliver a keynote titled “Digital parasites: Mapping the new frontiers of espionage, subversion, and Dark PR” at The Hague Program’s 2024 Conference on International Cyber Security. Visit the The Hague Program to learn more.

Empty Promises? Ron Deibert on the U.S. decision to remove Sandvine from blacklist following promises of “transformative change”

October 29, 2024

In the Media

In an interview with CTV Kitchener, The Citizen Lab’s director Ron Deibert discusses the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to remove Sandvine from the Entity List.

Digital attacks against exiled and diaspora women activists – re:publica 2024

Featured Publications

Lifting the lid off the Internet.

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Features & News

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