Recent research from The Citizen Lab has detected the presence of devices capable of surveillance on networks operated by Nigerian Internet service providers. In January 2013, Citizen Lab researchers found installations of Blue Coat Systems’ PacketShaper device on netblocks associated with IPNX ISP and Cobranet. In April 2013, Citizen Lab released “For Their Eyes Only: The Commercialization of Digital Spying,” in which researchers identified FinFisher servers on a network operated by Suburban Telecom.

Marczak is a Computer Science PhD student at UC Berkeley working on developing new languages, abstractions, and tools for distributed programming. He is also a founding member of Bahrain Watch, a monitoring and advocacy group that seeks to promote effective, accountable, and transparent governance in Bahrain through research and evidence-based activism.

Scott-Railton was part of the “Emerging Bad Actors in the Virtual and Physical Worlds” panel alongside Jeffrey Carr, Moderator with Dr. David Kilcullen, Jonathan Hutson, Thomas Dzieran, Aaron Weisburd, and Peter Mattis.

In his lecture, Professor Deibert put the NSA revelations in a broader context, emphasizing the political economy of the cyber security industrial complex and its unintended consequences in a world of Big Data.

The paper presents an initial methodology for identifying and confirming the use of URL filtering products around the world.

Citizen Lab Technical Advisor Morgan Marquis-Boire was interviewed in an article on Hacking Team published in the Verge on 13 September.

In June 2013, Jordan’s Press and Publications Department initiated a ban on all Jordanian news websites that have not registered and been licensed by the government agency. 7iber was among the more than 300 news websites blocked as a result of this initiative. Since its website was blocked, 7iber has been working with lawyers and other media groups to challenge the law and has used the opportunity to raise awareness about Internet filtering and freedom of expression.

The Citizen Lab has documented a pattern of Internet filtering in Pakistan that is inconsistent and intermittent with with filtering primarily targeted at content deemed to be a threat to national security and at religious content considered blasphemous. In recent years, Twitter, Facebook, and certain pages on Flickr and Wikipedia have been periodically blocked in the country due to what was considered blasphemous content circulating on those sites. Bytes for All (B4A), has been campaigning for the online rights of Pakistani citizens and an active participant in the debate on the use of information communications technologies for sustainable development and strengthening human rights movements in the country.

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert wrote a joint commentary with Ann Cavoukian, Andrew Clement and Nathalie Des Rosiers in the Globe and Mail today about the lack of accountability of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC).

In a piece published in the Globe and Mail today, Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert argues that telecommunications companies must not be compelled to build secret vulnerabilities into their systems, known as back doors.