The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Canada focusing on advanced research and development at the intersection of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), human rights, and global security. Learn more »

In Focus

Canada’s Quiet History Of Weakening Communications Encryption

This article, written by Postdoctoral Fellow Christopher Parsons and CIPPIC Staff lawyer Tamir Israel, analyzes how successive federal governments of Canada have actively sought to weaken the communications encryption available to Canadians. The article covers regulations imposed on mobile telecommunications providers, state authorities’ abilities to compel decryption keys from telecommunications providers writ large, and Canada’s signals intelligence agency’s deliberate propagation of flawed encryption protocols.

Every Rose Has Its Thorn: Censorship and Surveillance on Social Video Platforms in China

In this paper presented at USENIX FOCI 2015 we use reverse engineering to provide a view into how keyword censorship operates on four popular social video platforms in China: YY, 9158, Sina Show, and GuaGua. We also find keyword surveillance capabilities on YY. Our findings show inconsistencies in the implementation of censorship and the keyword lists used to trigger censorship events between the platforms we analyzed. We reveal a range of targeted content including criticism of the government and collective action. These results provide evidence that there is no monolithic set of rules that govern how information controls are implemented in China.

What we know about the South Korea NIS’s use of Hacking Team’s RCS

This research note outlines what we know about the use of Hacking Team’s Remote Control System (RCS) by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). The note synthesizes information found in publicly leaked materials, as well as our own research.

Research News

Information Controls Research at FOCI 2015

At the  2015 USENIX Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI) workshop, held in Washington DC on August 10, Citizen Lab and collaborators present three papers.

The papers include: investigation of censorship and surveillance on China’s most popular social video platforms, an updated analysis of China’s Great Canon, and examination of securing cookie-based identifiers from passive surveillance.

Authoritarianism Goes Global: Cyberspace Under Siege

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert authored an article in the June 2015 edition of the Journal of Democracy, titled “Authoritarianism Goes Global: Cyberspace Under Siege.”

Politics, Rumors, and Ambiguity: Tracking Censorship on WeChat’s Public Accounts Platform

This report is an analysis of the types of content removed by WeChat on its public accounts (also known as “official accounts”) blogging platform.

Targeted Attacks against Tibetan and Hong Kong Groups Exploiting CVE-2014-4114

This post analyzes targeted malware attacks against groups in the Tibetan diaspora and Hong Kong that leverage the CVE-2014-4114 vulnerability

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Lab News

Christopher Parsons on the Canadian government’s “secret network” hack

August 11, 2015 – 1:15 pm

A “secret network” launched by the Canadian federal government last year, costing millions of dollars to taxpayers, came under close scrutiny following a suspected hack. Citizen Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Christoper Parsons explains the possibilities behind the leaking of the document.

Cyber Stewards selected as Quantified Society grant winners

August 7, 2015 – 12:11 pm

The Media Democracy Fund, in conjunction with the Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundations, selected Cyber Stewards Network partners Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) and Derechos Digitales as recipients of the Quantified Society Grants.

Pakistan to ban BlackBerry encrypted messaging

August 7, 2015 – 11:30 am

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), a government agency responsible for the establishment and operation of telecommunications in the country, ordered the shutdown of BlackBerry’s encrypted communication services.

Hacking Team leak highlights Citizen Lab research

August 6, 2015 – 4:50 pm

Hacking Team, a Milan-based developer of “offensive security” technology that markets its products to governments and law enforcement agencies around the world, was significantly compromised when hackers leaked nearly 400 GB of its internal data, including emails, client files, and financial documents. The leak was announced via Hacking Team’s own compromised Twitter account, and the content made publicly available. Among other things, the leaked documents confirmed our findings that the company sells its software to several governments with repressive human rights records, such as Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, and more.

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