After years spent as one of the world’s most strictly controlled information environments, the government of Burma has recently begun to open up access to previously censored online content. Recent OpenNet Initiative testing has confirmed these changes, finding a variety of opposition websites, critical blogs and foreign news sites to be accessible after years of blocking. This ONI blog post discusses recent developments in Burma and reports on the results of testing conducted in Burma in August 2012.

On October 22, Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert will participate in a panel on “Building a Digital Society: Social Media and the Global Public Square” at the 2012 World Congress on Information Technology.

In this report, Citizen Lab Security Researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire describes analysis performed on malicious software used to compromise a high profile dissident residing in the United Arab Emirates. The findings indicate that the software is a commercial surveillance backdoor distributed by an Italian company known as Hacking Team. The report also describes the potential involvement of vulnerabilities sold by the French company, VUPEN.

PEN Canada and Citizen Lab are hosting a panel of experts to examine freedom of expression and censorship in the online world.

This edition of the Middle East and North Africa CyberWatch covers topics such as censorship and filtering, cyber attacks and technology.

This edition of the Latin America and The Caribbean CyberWatch covers related developments from Cuba, Jamaica, Venezuela, Chile, and Brazil.

The September 2012 issue of Southeast Asia CyberWatch covers related developments in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

This edition of the Middle East and North Africa CyberWatch covers topics such as censorship and filtering, blogger and netizen arrests, Internet and social media use, and more.

On March 18-19, 2012, the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs convened a public forum entitled What is Stewardship in Cyberspace.