Citizen Lab staff and research in the news.
Citizen Lab Senior Security Researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire joined the Ars Technica Live podcast series to discuss the rise of what he calls “digital authoritarianism,” an extension of the activities of authoritarian governments into cyberspace, and the steps he says citizens can take to protect themselves.
Senior Research Fellow Bill Marczak was featured in a Vanity Fair article exploring his discovery of the spyware used to target UAE dissident Ahmed Mansoor, detailed in a recent Citizen Lab report.
Director Ron Deibert spoke to CNN International on Citizen Lab’s recent report, titled “One App, Two Systems: How WeChat uses one censorship policy in China and another internationally.” Deibert commented on trends of censorship and surveillance in China, and Asian instant messaging applications more broadly.
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.
In a recent speech, Ali Baba co-founder Jack Ma suggested that the Chinese government should use big data to help prevent crime, a view that resonates with the Communist party’s efforts to establish a system parsing citizen information online. Citizen Lab Senior Research Fellow Jason Q. Ng commented on Ma’s remarks in an interview with Bloomberg.
Citizen Lab Senior Research Fellow Bill Marczak and Senior Security Researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire were featured in an episode of Al Jazeera’s ‘Faultlines’ program, in an episode entitled “Crypto Wars: Behind the Encryption Debate.” They discussed attitudes concerning surveillance in the wake of the San Bernadino shooting as well as other terrorist activities.
Citizen Lab Research Fellow Andrew Hilts was interviewed by the Globe and Mail regarding Access My Info’s fitness tracker report, titled “Every Step You Fake,” in which the privacy and security safeguards of eight popular wearable fitness tracker devices was studied.
In an interview with the Daily Dot, Citizen Lab Research Manager Masashi Crete-Nishihata commented on the challenges Tibetans face in using social media and other online tools to spread content considered politically sensitive by the Chinese government.
A group calling itself the Shadow Brokers has claimed to have hacked an elite cyberattack organization associated with the U.S National Security Agency (NSA), and is offering the stolen technology to the highest bidder. Citizen Lab Senior Research Fellow Claudio Guarnieri discussed the credibility of the claims with The Wired.
Citizen Lab Research Manager Masashi Crete-Nishihata was interviewed by Al Jazeera regarding censorship practices in popular Asian instant messaging applications.
