In this report we provide the first systematic study of keyword and website censorship on WeChat, the most popular chat app in China

Cyber Stewards Network Partner 7iber met with Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert, as well as Senior Research Fellows John-Scott Railton and Bill Marczak to discuss the Lab’s work in exposing spy systems in various countries, and in particular, the Middle East.

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert will be giving testimony to the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights Wednesday November 30th 2016 at 11:30 AM.

Citizen Lab Cyber Stewards Network Partner Pirongrong Ramasoota was featured in a Bangkok Post article exploring the role of the Thai government’s censorship measures and the subsequent rise of hate speech online.

Citizen Lab Cyber Steward Network Partner Donny Budhi Utoyo, Executive Director of ICT Watch, spoke to the Jakarta Post in an interview about Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) law.

In this report we track a malware operation targeting members of the Tibetan Parliament that used known and patched exploits to deliver a custom backdoor known as KeyBoy. We analyze multiple versions of KeyBoy revealing a development cycle focused on avoiding basic antivirus detection.

November 10 – Toronto, Canada

Citizen Lab Senior Research Fellow John Scott-Railton has published an updated version of his “Security for the High-Risk user” paper, first published in the IEEE Security & Privacy in spring 2016. The updates were made based on new evidence of attacks against two-factor and account recovery SMSes, underlining the need for innovation in two-factor authentication.

December 5-9 – Guadalajara, Mexico

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) plans to send text messages to individuals who were present in the particular neighbourhood in which a homicide occurred, in an attempt to gain more information in solving the crime. Postdoctoral Fellow Christopher Parsons commented on the use and storage of this data.