Publications

Research Reports

Director Ron Deibert’s blog posts provide summaries and analysis of Citizen Lab research reports and can be found here.

Alberto Fittarelli. “PAPERWALL: Chinese Websites Posing as Local News Outlets Target Global Audiences with Pro-Beijing Content.” Citizen Lab Report No. 174, University of Toronto, February 7, 2024. https://citizenlab.ca/2024/02/paperwall-chinese-websites-posing-as-local-news-outlets-with-pro-beijing-content/.

Jeffrey Knockel, and Emile Dirks. “Chinese censorship following the death of Li Keqiang.” Citizen Lab Report No. 173, University of Toronto, November 21, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/11/chinese-censorship-following-the-death-of-li-keqiang/.

Gary Miller, and Christopher Parsons. “Finding You: The Network Effect of Telecommunications Vulnerabilities for Location Disclosure.” Citizen Lab Report No. 172, University of Toronto, October 26, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/10/finding-you-teleco-vulnerabilities-for-location-disclosure/.

Jeffrey Knockel, Zoë Reichert, and Mona Wang. “Please Do not make it public: Vulnerabilities in Sogou Keyboard encryption expose keypresses to network eavesdropping.” Citizen Lab Report No. 170, University of Toronto, August 9, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/08/vulnerabilities-in-sogou-keyboard-encryption/.

Jeffrey Knockel, Jakub Dalek, Levi Meletti, and Ksenia Ermoshina. “Not OK on VK: An Analysis of In-Platform Censorship on Russia’s VKontakte.” Citizen Lab Report No. 169, University of Toronto, July 26, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/07/an-analysis-of-in-platform-censorship-on-russias-vkontakte/.

Alberto Fittarelli, and Lokman Tsui. “Beautiful Bauhinia: “HKLeaks” – The Use of Covert and Overt Online Harassment Tactics to Repress 2019 Hong Kong Protests.” Citizen Lab Report No. 168, University of Toronto, July 13, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/07/hkleaks-covert-and-overt-online-harassment-tactics-to-repress-the-2019-hong-kong-protests/.

Mona Wang, Pallaeon Lin, and Jeffrey Knockel. “Should We Chat? Privacy in the WeChat Ecosystem.” Citizen Lab Report No. 167, University of Toronto, June 28, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/06/privacy-in-the-wechat-ecosystem-full-report/.

Jeffrey Knockel, Ken Kato, and Emile Dirks. “Missing Links: A Comparison of Search Censorship in China.” Citizen Lab Report No. 166, University of Toronto, April 26, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/04/a-comparison-of-search-censorship-in-china/.

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Bahr Abdul Razzak, and Ron Deibert. “Triple Threat: NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware Returns in 2022 with a Trio of iOS 15 and iOS 16 Zero-Click Exploit Chains.” Citizen Lab Report No. 165, University of Toronto, April 18, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/04/nso-groups-pegasus-spyware-returns-in-2022/.

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Astrid Perry, Noura Al-Jizawi, Siena Anstis, Zoe Panday, Emma Lyon, Bahr Abdul Razzak, and Ron Deibert. “Sweet QuaDreams: A First Look at Spyware Vendor QuaDream’s Exploits, Victims, and Customers.” Citizen Lab Report No. 164, University of Toronto, April 11, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/04/spyware-vendor-quadream-exploits-victims-customers/.

Gary Miller, Noura Al-Jizawi, Ksenia Ermoshina, Marcus Michaelsen, Zoe Panday, Genny Plumptre, Adam Senft, and Ron Deibert. “You Move, They Follow: Uncovering Iran’s Mobile Legal Intercept System.” Citizen Lab No. 163, University of Toronto, January 16, 2023. https://citizenlab.ca/2023/01/uncovering-irans-mobile-legal-intercept-system/.

Emile Dirks. “Mass Iris Scan Collection in Qinghai: 2019–2022.” Citizen Lab Report No. 162, University of Toronto, December 14, 2022. https://citizenlab.ca/2022/12/mass-iris-scan-collection-in-qinghai/.

Amanda Cutinha, and Christopher Parsons. “Minding Your Business: A Critical Analysis of the Collection of De-Identified Mobility Data and Its Use Under Socially Beneficial and Legitimate Business Exemptions in Canadian Privacy Law.” Citizen Lab Report No. 161, University of Toronto, November 22, 2022. https://citizenlab.ca/2022/11/a-critical-analysis-of-the-collection-of-de-identified-mobility-data/.

Christopher Parsons. “Cybersecurity Will Not Thrive in Darkness: A Critical Analysis of Proposed Amendments in Bill C-26 to the Telecommunications Act,” Citizen Lab Report No. 160, University of Toronto, October 2022. https://citizenlab.ca/2022/10/a-critical-analysis-of-proposed-amendments-in-bill-c-26-to-the-telecommunications-act/.

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Siena Anstis, Paolo Nigro Herrero, and Ron Deibert. “New Pegasus Spyware Abuses Identified in Mexico,” Citizen Lab Report No. 159, University of Toronto, October 2022.

Emile Dirks. “Mass DNA Collection in the Tibet Autonomous Region from 2016–2022,” Citizen Lab Report No. 158, University of Toronto, September 2022.

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Irene Poetranto, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Sutawan Chanprasert, and Ron Deibert. “GeckoSpy: Pegasus Spyware Used against Thailand’s Pro-Democracy Movement,” Citizen Lab Report No. 157, University of Toronto, July 2022.

Jeffrey Knockel and Lotus Ruan. “Bada Bing, Bada Boom: Microsoft Bing’s Chinese Political Censorship of Autosuggestions in North America,” Citizen Lab Report No. 156, University of Toronto, May 2022. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Elies Campo, Bill Marczak, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Siena Anstis, Gözde Böcü, Salvatore Solimano, and Ron Deibert. “CatalanGate: Extensive Mercenary Spyware Operation against Catalans Using Pegasus and Candiru,” Citizen Lab Report No. 155, University of Toronto, April 2022. [Download PDF]

Pellaeon Lin. “Privacy and Security Analysis of the IATA Travel Pass Android App,” Citizen Lab Report No. 154, University of Toronto, April 2022.

Mohammed Al-Maskati, Bill Marczak, Siena Anstis, and Ron Deibert. “Peace through Pegasus: Jordanian Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Hacked with Pegasus Spyware,” Citizen Lab Report No. 153, University of Toronto, April 2022.

Jeffrey Knockel and Lotus Ruan. “Engrave Condition: Apple’s Political Censorship Leaves Taiwan, Remains in Hong Kong,” Citizen Lab Report No. 152, University of Toronto, March 2022.

Noura Al-Jizawi, Siena Anstis, Sophie Barnett, Sharly Chan, Niamh Leonard, Adam Senft, and Ron Deibert. “Psychological and Emotional War: Digital Transnational Repression in Canada,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 151, University of Toronto, March 2022. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, Ali Abdulemam, John Scott-Railton, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Siena Anstis, Noura Al-Jizawi, and Ron Deibert. “PEARL 2 PEGASUS: Bahraini Activists Hacked with Pegasus Just Days after a Report Confirming Other Victims,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 150, University of Toronto, February 2022.

Jeffrey Knockel. “Cross-country Exposure: Analysis of the MY2022 Olympics App,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 149, University of Toronto, January 2022.

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Paolo Nigro Herrero, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Noura Al-Jizawi, Salvatore Solimano, and Ron Deibert. “Project Torogoz: Extensive Hacking of Media & Civil Society in El Salvador with Pegasus Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 148, University of Toronto, January 2022.

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Noura Al-Jizawi, Siena Anstis, Kristin Berdan, and Ron Deibert. “Pegasus vs. Predator: Dissident’s Doubly-Infected iPhone Reveals Cytrox Mercenary Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 147, University of Toronto, December 2021.

Devices of Palestinian Human Rights Defenders Hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 146, University of Toronto, November 2021.

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Siena Anstis, Bahr Abdul Razzak, and Ron Deibert. “Breaking the News: New York Times Journalist Ben Hubbard Hacked with Pegasus after Reporting on Previous Hacking Attempts,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 145, University of Toronto, October 2021.

Benjamin Ballard, Amanda Cutinha, and Christopher Parsons. “Pandemic Privacy: A Preliminary Analysis of Collection Technologies, Data Collection Laws, and Legislative Reform during COVID-19,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 144, University of Toronto, September 2021. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Noura Al-Jizawi, Siena Anstis, Kristin Berdan, and Ron Deibert. “FORCEDENTRY: NSO Group iMessage Zero-Click Exploit Captured in the Wild,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 143, University of Toronto, September 2021.

Jakub Dalek, Nica Dumlao, Miles Kenyon, Irene Poetranto, Adam Senft, Caroline Wesley, Arturo Filastò, Maria Xynou, and Amie Bishop. “No Access: LGBTIQ Website Censorship in Six Countries,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 142, University of Toronto, August 2021.

Bill Marczak, Ali Abdulemam, Noura Al-Jizawi, Siena Anstis, Kristin Berdan, John Scott-Railton, and Ron Deibert. “From Pearl to Pegasus: Bahraini Government Hacks Activists with NSO Group Zero-Click iPhone Exploits,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 141, University of Toronto, August 2021.

Jeffrey Knockel and Lotus Ruan. “Engrave Danger: An Analysis of Apple Engraving Censorship across Six Regions,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 140, University of Toronto, August 2021.

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Kristin Berdan, Bahr Abdul Razzak, and Ron Deibert. “Hooking Candiru: Another Mercenary Spyware Vendor Comes into Focus,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 139, University of Toronto, July 2021.

Christopher Parsons. “Canada’s Proposed Privacy Law Reforms Are Not Enough: A Path to Improving Organizational Transparency and Accountability,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 138, University of Toronto, April 2021.

Pellaeon Lin. “TikTok vs Douyin: A Security and Privacy Analysis,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 137, University of Toronto, March 2021.

Pellaeon Lin, Jeffrey Knockel, Irene Poetranto, Stephanie Tran, Justin Lau, and Adam Senft. “Unmasked II: An Analysis of Indonesia and the Philippines’ Government-launched COVID-19 Apps,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 136, University of Toronto, December 2020. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Noura Al-Jizawi, Siena Anstis, and Ron Deibert. “The Great iPwn: Journalists Hacked with Suspected NSO Group iMessage ‘Zero-Click’ Exploit,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 135, University of Toronto, December 2020. [Download PDF]

Christopher Parsons. “Huawei & 5G: Clarifying the Canadian Equities and Charting a Strategic Path Forward,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 134, University of Toronto, December 2020. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Siddharth Prakash Rao, Siena Anstis, and Ron Deibert. “Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyberespionage Firm Circles,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 133, University of Toronto, December 2020. [Download PDF]

Pellaeon Lin, Jeffrey Knockel, Adam Senft, Irene Poetranto, Stephanie Tran, and Ron Deibert. “Unmasked: COVID-KAYA and the Exposure of Healthcare Worker Data in the Philippines,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 132, University of Toronto, November 2020. [Download PDF]

Cynthia Khoo, Kate Robertson, and Yolanda Song. “To Surveil and Predict: A Human Rights Analysis of Algorithmic Policing in Canada,” Citizen Lab and International Human Rights Program (Faculty of Law, University of Toronto), Research Report No. 131, September 2020. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jakub Dalek, Jeffrey Knockel, Nicola Lawford, Caroline Wesley, and Mari Zhou. “Censored Contagion II: A Timeline of Information Control on Chinese Social Media During COVID-19,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 130, University of Toronto, August 2020.

John Scott-Railton, Siena Anstis, Sharly Chan, Bill Marczak, and Ron Deibert. “Nothing Sacred: Religious and Secular Voices for Reform in Togo Targeted with NSO Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 129, University of Toronto, August 2020.

John Scott-Railton, Adam Hulcoop, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Bill Marczak, Siena Anstis, and Ron Deibert. “Dark Basin: Uncovering a Massive Hack-For-Hire Operation,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 128, University of Toronto, June 2020. [Download PDF]

Jeffrey Knockel, Christopher Parsons, Lotus Ruan, Ruohan Xiong, Jedidiah Crandall, and Ron Deibert. “We Chat, They Watch: How International Users Unwittingly Build up WeChat’s Chinese Censorship Apparatus,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 127, University of Toronto, May 2020. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton. “Move Fast and Roll Your Own Crypto: A Quick Look at the Confidentiality of Zoom Meetings,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 126, University of Toronto, April 2020. [Download PDF]

Lotus Ruan, Jeffrey Knockel, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Censored Contagion: How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 125, University of Toronto, March 2020. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, Siena Anstis, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, John Scott-Railton, and Ron Deibert. “Stopping the Press: New York Times Journalist Targeted by Saudi-linked Pegasus Spyware Operator,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 124, University of Toronto, January 2020. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, Adam Hulcoop, Etienne Maynier, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, John Scott-Railton, and Ron Deibert. “Missing Link: Tibetan Groups Targeted with 1-Click Mobile Exploits,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 123, University of Toronto, September 2019. [Download PDF]

Jeffrey Knockel and Ruohan Xiong. “(Can’t) Picture This 2: An Analysis of WeChat’s Realtime Image Filtering in Chats,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 122, University of Toronto, July 2019. [Download PDF]

Cynthia Khoo, Kate Robertson, and Ron Deibert. “Installing Fear: A Canadian Legal and Policy Analysis of Using, Developing, and Selling Smartphone Spyware and Stalkerware Applications,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 121, University of Toronto, June 2019. [Download PDF]

Christopher Parsons, Adam Molnar, Jakub Dalek, Jeffrey Knockel, Miles Kenyon, Bennett Haselton, Cynthia Khoo, and Ron Deibert. “The Predator in Your Pocket: A Multidisciplinary Assessment of the Stalkerware Application Industry,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 120, University of Toronto, June 2019. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jeffrey Knockel, Ruohan Xiong. “Censored Commemoration: Chinese Live Streaming Platform YY Focuses Censorship on June 4 Memorials and Activism in Hong Kong,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 119, University of Toronto, June 2019.

Gabrielle Lim, Etienne Maynier, John Scott-Railton, Alberto Fittarelli, Ned Moran, and Ron Deibert. “Burned After Reading: Endless Mayfly’s Ephemeral Disinformation Campaign,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 118, University of Toronto, May 2019. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Siena Anstis, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Ron Deibert. “Reckless VII: Wife of Journalist Slain in Cartel-Linked Killing Targeted with NSO Group’s Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 117, University of Toronto, March 2019. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Siena Anstis, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Ron Deibert. “Reckless VI: Mexican Journalists Investigating Cartels Targeted with NSO Spyware Following Assassination of Colleague,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 116, University of Toronto, November 2018.  [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Adam Senft , Bahr Abdul Razzak, and Ron Deibert. “The Kingdom Came to Canada: How Saudi-Linked Digital Espionage Reached Canadian Soil,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 115, University of Toronto, October 2018. [Download PDF]

Petra Molnar and Lex Gill. “Bots at the Gate: A Human Rights Analysis of Automated Decision-Making in Canada’s Immigration and Refugee System,” Citizen Lab and International Human Rights Program (Faculty of Law, University of Toronto) Research Report No. 114, University of Toronto, September 2018. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Sarah McKune, Bahr Abdul Razzak, and Ron Deibert. “Hide and Seek: Tracking NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware to Operations in 45 Countries,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 113, University of Toronto, September 2018. [Download PDF]

Jeffrey Knockel, Lotus Ruan, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Ron Deibert. “(Can’t) Picture This: An Analysis of Image Filtering on WeChat Moments,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 112, University of Toronto, August 2018. [Download PDF]

Geoffrey Alexander, Matt Brooks, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Etienne Maynier, John Scott-Railton, and Ron Deibert. “Familiar Feeling: A Malware Campaign Targeting the Tibetan Diaspora Resurfaces,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 111, University of Toronto, August 2018. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, and Ron Deibert. “NSO Group Infrastructure Linked to Targeting of Amnesty International and Saudi Dissident,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 110, University of Toronto, July 2018. [Download PDF]

Lex Gill, Tamir Israel, and Christopher Parsons. “Shining a Light on the Encryption Debate: A Canadian Field Guide,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 109, University of Toronto, May 2018. [Download PDF]

Jakub Dalek, Lex Gill, Bill Marczak, Sarah McKune, Naser Noor, Joshua Oliver, Jon Penney, Adam Senft, and Ron Deibert. “Planet Netsweeper,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 108, University of Toronto, April 2018. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, Jakub Dalek, Sarah McKune, Adam Senft, John Scott-Railton, and Ron Deibert. “Bad Traffic: Sandvine’s PacketLogic Devices Used to Deploy Government Spyware in Turkey and Redirect Egyptian Users to Affiliate Ads?,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 107, University of Toronto, March 2018. [Download PDF]

Andrew Hilts, Christopher Parsons, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Approaching Access: A Look at Consumer Personal Data Requests in Canada,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 106, University of Toronto, February 2018.

Lex Gill, Tamir Israel, and Christopher Parsons. “Government’s Defence of Proposed CSE Act Falls Short,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 105, University of Toronto, January 2018. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jakub Dalek, Etienne Maynier, and John Scott-Railton. “Spying on a Budget: Inside a Phishing Operation with Targets in the Tibetan Community,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 104, University of Toronto, January 2018. [Download PDF]

Christopher Parsons, Tamir Israel, Ron Deibert, Lex Gill, and Bill Robinson. “Citizen Lab and CIPPIC Release Analysis of the Communications Security Establishment Act,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 103, University of Toronto, January 2018.

Bill Marczak, Geoffrey Alexander, Sarah McKune, John Scott-Railton, and Ron Deibert. “Champing at the Cyberbit: Ethiopian Dissidents Targeted with New Commercial Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 102, University of Toronto, December 2017. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Lotus Ruan, Jakub Dalek, and Jeffrey Knockel. “Managing the message: What you can’t say about the 19th National Communist Party Congress on WeChat,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 101, University of Toronto, November 2017. [Download PDF]

Fabian Faessler, Geoffrey Alexander, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Andrew Hilts, and Kelly Kim. “Safer Without: Korean Child Monitoring and Filtering Apps,” Citizen Lab ResearchReport No. 100, University of Toronto, September 2017. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Ron Deibert. “Reckless V: Director of Mexican Anti-Corruption Group Targeted with NSO Group’s Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 99, University of Toronto, August 2017. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Ron Deibert. “Reckless IV: Lawyers for Murdered Mexican Women’s Families Targeted with NSO Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 98, University of Toronto, August 2017. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jeffrey Knockel, Blake Miller, Jason Q. Ng, Lotus Ruan, Lokman Tsui, and Ruohan Xiong. “Remembering Liu Xiaobo: Analyzing censorship of the death of Liu Xiaobo on WeChat and Weibo,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 97, University of Toronto, July 2017. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Ron Deibert. “Reckless III: Investigation Into Mexican Mass Disappearance Targeted with NSO Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 96, University of Toronto, July 2017. [Download PDF]

Jakub Dalek, Geoffrey Alexander, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Matt Brooks. “Insider Information: An intrusion campaign targeting Chinese language news sites,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 95, University of Toronto, July 2017. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Ron Deibert. “Reckless Redux: Senior Mexican Legislators and Politicians Targeted with NSO Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 94, University of Toronto, June 2017.  [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Ron Deibert. “Reckless Exploit: Mexican Journalists, Lawyers, and a Child Targeted with NSO Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 93, University of Toronto, June 2017. [Download PDF]

Adam Hulcoop, John Scott-Railton, Peter Tanchak, Matt Brooks, and Ron Deibert. “Tainted Leaks: Disinformation and Phishing with a Russian Nexus,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 92, University of Toronto, May 2017. [Download PDF]

Lotus Ruan, Jeffrey Knockel, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “We (Can’t) Chat: ‘709 Crackdown’ Discussions Blocked on Weibo and WeChat,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 91, University of Toronto, April 2017.  [Download PDF]

Citizen Lab and the Foundation for Media Alternatives. “An Overview of Internet Infrastructure and Governance in the Philippines,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 90, University of Toronto, March 2017.

John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Claudio Guarnieri, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Bitter Sweet: Supporters of Mexico’s Soda Tax Targeted With NSO Exploit Links,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 89, University of Toronto, February 2017. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Ramy Raoof, Bill Marczak, and Etienne Maynier. “Nile Phish: Large-Scale Phishing Campaign Targeting Egyptian Civil Society,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 88, University of Toronto, February 2017. [Download PDF]

Shazeda Ahmed. “Cashless Society, Cached Data: Security Considerations for a Chinese Social Credit System.” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 87, University of Toronto, January 2017.

Shazeda Ahmed and Adrian Fong. “Cashless Society, Cached Data: Are Mobile Payment Systems Protecting Chinese Citizens’ Data?” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 86, University of Toronto, January 2017.

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jeffrey Knockel, and Lotus Ruan. “Tibetans blocked from Kalachakra at borders and on WeChat,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 85, University of Toronto, January 2017. [Download PDF]

Lotus Ruan, Jeffrey Knockel, Jason Q. Ng, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. One App, Two Systems: “One App, Two Systems: How WeChat uses one censorship policy in China and another internationally,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 84, University of Toronto, November 2016. [Download PDF]

Adam Hulcoop, Matt Brooks, Etienne Maynier, John Scott-Railton, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “It’s Parliamentary: KeyBoy and the targeting of the Tibetan Community,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 83, University of Toronto, November 2016. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Andrew Hilts, Jeffrey Knockel, Jason Q. Ng, Lotus Ruan, and Greg Wiseman. “Harmonized Histories? A year of fragmented censorship across Chinese live streaming applications,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 82, University of Toronto, November 2016.

Christopher Parsons and Tamir Israel. “Canada’s National Security Consultation: Digital Anonymity & Subscriber Identification Revisited… Yet Again,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 81, University of Toronto, October 2016.

Jakub Dalek, Ron Deibert, Bill Marczak, Sarah McKune, Helmi Noman, Irene Poetranto, and Adam Senft. “Tender Confirmed, Rights At Risk: Verifying Netsweeper in Bahrain,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 80, University of Toronto, September 2016. [Download PDF]

Christopher Parsons and Tamir Israel. “IMSI Catcher Report Calls for Transparency, Proportionality, and Minimization Policies,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 79, University of Toronto, September 2016.

Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton. “The Million Dollar Dissident: NSO Group’s iPhone Zero-Days used against a UAE Human Rights Defender,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 78, University of Toronto, August 2016. [Download PDF]

Jeffrey Knockel, Adam Senft, and Ronald Deibert. “A Tough Nut to Crack: A Further Look at Privacy and Security Issues in UC Browser,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 77, University of Toronto, August 2016. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Bahr Abdulrazzak, Adam Hucloop, Matt Brooks, and Katie Kleemola. “Group5: Syria and the Iranian Connection,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 76, University of Toronto, August 2016. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton. “Keep Calm and (Don’t) Enable Macros: A New Threat Actor Targets UAE Dissidents,”Citizen Lab Research Report No. 75, University of Toronto, May 2016.

Matthew Brooks, Jakub Dalek, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Between Hong Kong and Burma: Tracking UP007 and SLServer Espionage Campaigns,” Citizen Lab Research Report  No. 74, University of Toronto, April 2016. [Download PDF]

Andrew Hilts, Christopher Parsons, and Jeffrey Knockel. “Every Step You Fake: Final Report released,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 73, University of Toronto, April 2016. [Download PDF]

Jeffrey Knockel, Adam Senft, and Ron Deibert. “WUP! There It Is: Privacy and Security Issues in QQ Browser,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 72, University of Toronto, March 2016. [Download PDF]

Jakub Dalek, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and John Scott-Railton. “Shifting Tactics: Tracking changes in years-long espionage campaign against Tibetans,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 71, University of Toronto, March 2016. [Download PDF]

Jeffrey Knockel, Sarah McKune, and Adam Senft. “Baidu’s and Don’ts: Privacy and Security Issues in Baidu Browser,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 70, University of Toronto, February 2016. [Download PDF]

Andrew Hilts, Christopher Parsons, and Jeffrey Knockel. “Every Step you Fake: A Comparative Analysis of Fitness Tracker Privacy and Security,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 69, University of Toronto, February 2016. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton, Morgan Marquis-Boire, Claudio Guarnieri, Marion Marschalek. “Packrat: Seven Years of a South American Threat Actor,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 68, University of Toronto, December 2015. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jakub Dalek, John Scott-Railton, and Collin Anderson. “The Kids are Still at Risk: Update to Citizen Lab’s “Are the Kids Alright?” Smart Sheriff report,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 67, University of Toronto, November 2015.

Jakub Dalek, Ronald Deibert, Sarah McKune, Phillipa Gill, Naser Noor, and Adam Senft. “Information Controls during Military operations: The case of Yemen during the 2015 political and armed conflict,“Citizen Lab Research Report No. 66, University of Toronto, October 2015. [Download PDF]

Katie Kleemola, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Adam Senft, and Irene Poetranto. “Targeted Malware Attacks against NGO Linked to Attacks on Burmese Government Websites,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 65, University of Toronto, October 2015. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Adam Senft, Irene Poetranto, and Sarah McKune. “Pay No Attention to the Server Behind the Proxy: Mapping FinFisher’s Continuing Proliferation,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 64, University of Toronto, October 2015. [Download PDF]

Sarah McKune. “An Analysis of the International Code of Conduct for Information Security,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 63, University of Toronto, September 2015.

Collin Anderson, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Chris Dehghanpoor, Ron Deibert, Sarah McKune, Davi Ottenheimer, and John Scott-Railton. “Are the Kids Alright? Digital Risks to Minors from South Korea’s Smart Sheriff Application,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 62, University of Toronto, September 2015. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton and Katie Kleemola. “London Calling: Two-Factor Authentication Phishing from Iran,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 61, University of Toronto, August 2015. [Download PDF]

Christopher Parsons and Tamir Israel. “Canada’s Quiet History of Weakening Communications Encryption,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 60, University of Toronto, August 2015.

Adam Senft, Jason Q. Ng, Jeffrey Knockel, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn: Censorship and Surveillance on Social Video Platforms in China,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 59, University of Toronto, August 2015.

Bill Marczak and Sarah McKune. “What we know about the South Korea NIS’s use of Hacking Team’s RCS,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 58, University of Toronto, University of Toronto, August 2015.

Jason Q. Ng. “Politics, Rumors, and Ambiguity: Tracking Censorship on WeChat’s Public Accounts Platform,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 57, University of Toronto, July 2015.

Katie Kleemola, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and John Scott-Railton. “Targeted Attacks against Tibetan and Hong Kong Exploiting CVE-2014-4114,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 56, University of Toronto, June 2015.

Christopher Parsons. “The Governance of Telecommunications Surveillance,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 55, University of Toronto, May 2015. [Download PDF]

Jakub Dalek (Lead), Katie Kleemola (Lead), Adam Senft (Lead), Christopher Parsons, Andrew Hilts, Sarah McKune, Jason Q. Ng, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, John Scott-Railton, Ronald Deibert. “A Chatty Squirrel: Privacy and Security Issues with UC Browser,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 54, University of Toronto, May 2015. [Download PDF]

Citizen Lab. “The Many Identifiers in Our Pockets: A primer on mobile privacy and security,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 53, University of Toronto, May 2015. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak (Lead), Nicholas Weaver (Lead), Jakub Dalek, Roya Ensafi, David Fifield, Sarah McKune, Arn Rey, John Scott-Railton, Ronald Deibert, Vern Paxson. “China’s Great Cannon,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 52, University of Toronto, April 2015. [Download PDF]

Katie Kleemola, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and John Scott-Railton. “Tibetan Uprising Day Malware Attacks,” Citizen Lab Research Report No.51, University of Toronto, March 2015. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton and Sarah McKune. “Hacking Team Reloaded? US-Based Ethiopian Journalists Again Targeted With Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No.50, University of Toronto, March 2015. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton and Seth Hardy. “Malware Attack Targeting Syrian ISIS Critics,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 49, University of Toronto, December 2014. [Download PDF]

Citizen Lab. “Communities @ Risk: Targeted Digital Threats Against Civil Society,” Citizen Lab Report No. 48, University of Toronto, November 2014. [Download PDF]

Adam Senft, Jason Q. Ng, Seth Hardy, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Asia Chats: LINE keyword filtering upgraded to include regular expressions,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 47, University of Toronto, October 2014. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire. “Schrodinger’s Cat Video and the Death of Clear-Text,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 46, University of Toronto, August 2014. [Download PDF]

Jakub Dalek, Adam Senft, Philipp Winter, and Andrei Dranka. “Iraq Information Controls Update: Analyzing Internet Filtering and Mobile Apps,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 45, University of Toronto, July 2014. [Download PDF]

Adam Senft, Jason Q. Ng, Seth Hardy, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Asia Chats: Update on Line, KakaoTalk, and FireChat in China,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 44, University of Toronto, July 2014. [Download PDF]

Jakub Dalek, Philipp Winter, Andrei Dranka, Seth Hardy, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Adam Senft. “Asia Chats: LINE and KakaoTalk Disruptions in China,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 43, University of Toronto, July 2014. [Download PDF]

Adam Senft, Jakub Dalek, Irene Poetranto, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Aim Sinpeng. “Information Controls During Thailand’s 2014 Coup,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 42, University of Toronto, July 2014. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire, John Scott-Railton, Claudio Guarnieri, and Katie Kleemola. “Police Story: Hacking Team’s Government Surveillance Malware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 41, University of Toronto, June 2014. [Download PDF]

Adam Senft, Jakub Dalek, Helmi Noman, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata.Monitoring Information Controls in Iraq in Reaction to ISIS Insurgency,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 40, University of Toronto, June 2014. [Download PDF]

Adam Senft and Irene Poetranto. “The Blocking of Vimeo in Indonesia,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 39, University of Toronto, May 2014. [Download PDF]

Jason Q. Ng, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Seth Hardy, Jakub Dalek, and Adam Senft. “Asia Chats: LINE Censored Keywords Update,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 38, University of Toronto, April 2014. [Download PDF]

John Scott-Railton. “Maliciously Repackaged Psiphon Found,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 37, University of Toronto, March 2014. [Download PDF]

Bennett Haselton. “Blue Coat Errors: Sites Miscategorized as “Pornography,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 36, University of Toronto, March 2014. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, Claudio Guarnieri, Morgan Marquis-Boire, John Scott-Railton, and Sarah McKune. “Hacking Team’s US Nexus,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 35, University of Toronto, March 2014. [ Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jakub Dalek, Adam Senft, Saad Omar Khan, Matthew Carrieri, Ron Deibert, and Helmi Noman. “Internet Filtering in a Failed State: The Case of Netsweeper in Somalia,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 34, University of Toronto, February 2014. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, Claudio Guarnieri, Morgan Marquis-Boire, and John Scott-Railton, “Mapping Hacking Team’s Untraceable Spyware,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 33, University of Toronto, February 2014. [Download PDF]

Bill Marczak, Claudio Guarnieri, Morgan Marquis-Boire, and John Scott-Railton, “Hacking Team and the Targeting of Ethiopian Journalists,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 32, University of Toronto, February 2014. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jakub Dalek, and Adam Senft. “Website of Canadian Bobsledder Blocked in Russia Due to Collateral Filtering,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 31, University of Toronto, February 2014. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jakub Dalek, Saad Omar Khan, Matthew Carrieri, Ron Deibert, Greg Wiseman, Helmi Noman, Bennett Haselton, and Irene Poetranto. “Islands of Control, Islands of Resistance: Monitoring the 2013 Indonesian IGF,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 30, University of Toronto, January 2014. [Download PDF]

Eva Galperin, Morgan Marquis-Boire and John-Scott Railton. “Quantum of Surveillance: Familiar Actors and Possible False Flags in Syrian Malware Campaigns,” Citizen Lab and Electronic Frontier Foundation Research Report No. 29, University of Toronto, December 23, 2013. [Download PDF]

Jason Q. Ng. “Correlating Political Events with Keyword Censorship on Sina Weibo: The Case of “Bo Xilai” (薄熙来),” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 28, University of Toronto, December 2013. [Download PDF]

Bennett Haselton. “Smartfilter: Miscategorization and Filtering in Saudi Arabia and UAE,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 27, University of Toronto, November 2013. [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jakub Dalek, Seth Hardy, Andrew Hilts, Katie Kleemola, Jason Q. Ng, Irene Poetranto, Adam Senft, Aim Sinpeng, Byron Sonne, and Greg Wiseman. “Asia Chats: Analyzing Information Controls and Privacy in Asian Messaging Applications, Citizen Lab Research Report No. 26, University of Toronto, November 2013. [Download PDF]

Seth Hardy. “Asia Chats: Investigating Regionally-based Keyword Censorship in LINE,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 25, University of Toronto, November 2013. [Download PDF]

Seth Hardy. “Targeted Threat Index,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 24, University of Toronto, October 2013. [Download PDF]

Jason Q. Ng, “Who’s the Boss? The Difficulties of Identifying Censorship in An Environment with Distributed Oversight: A Large-scale Comparison of Wikipedia China with Hudong and Baidu Baike,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 23, University of Toronto, August 2013. [Download PDF]

Jason Q. Ng. “Visualizing Changes in Censorship: Summarizing Two Months of Sina Weibo Keyword Monitoring With Two Interactive Charts,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 22, University of Toronto, August 2013. [Download PDF]

Katie Kleemola and Seth Hardy. “Surtr: Malware Family Targeting the Tibetan Community,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 21, University of Toronto, August 2013. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire (project leader), Collin Anderson (lead technical research), Jakub Dalek (lead technical research), Sarah McKune (lead legal research), John Scott-Railton (lead legal research), Matthew Carrieri, Ron Deibert, Saad Omar Khan and Adam Senft. “Some Devices Wander by Mistake: Planet Blue Coat Redux,”Citizen Lab Research Report No. 20, University of Toronto, July 2013. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire and John Scott-Railton. “A Call to Harm: New Malware Attacks Target the Syrian Opposition,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 19, University of Toronto, June 2013. [Download PDF]

Jakub Dalek, Adam Senft, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Ron Deibert. “O Pakistan, We Stand on Guard for Thee: An Analysis of Canada-based Netsweeper’s Role in Pakistan’s Censorship Regime,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 18, University of Toronto, June 2013. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire, Bill Marczak, Claudio Guarnieri, and John Scott-Railton. “For Their Eyes Only: The Commercialization of Digital Spying,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 17, University of Toronto, April 2013. [Download PDF]

Seth Hardy, Byron Sonne, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jakub Dalek, Ron Deibert, and Adam Senft. “Permission to Spy: An Analysis of Android Malware Targeting Tibetans,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 16, University of Toronto, April 2013. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire, Bill Marczak, Claudio Guarnieri, and John Scott-Railton. “You Only Click Twice: FinFisher’s Global Proliferation,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 15, University of Toronto, March 2013. [Download PDF]

Seth Hardy. “APT1’s GLASSES: Watching a Human Rights Organization,”Citizen Lab Research Report No. 14, University of Toronto, February 2013. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire (lead technical research) and Jakub Dalek (lead technical research), Sarah McKune (lead legal research), Matthew Carrieri, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Ron Deibert, Saad Omar Khan, Helmi Noman, John Scott-Railton, and Greg Wiseman. “Planet Blue Coat: Mapping Global Censorship and Surveillance Tools,”Citizen Lab Research Report No. 13, University of Toronto, January 2013. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire. “Backdoors are Forever: Hacking Team and the Targeting of Dissent?,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 12, University of Toronto, October 2012. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire, Bill Marczak and Claudio Guarnieri. “The SmartPhone Who Loved Me: FinFisher Goes Mobile?,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 11, University of Toronto, August 2012. [Download PDF]

Seth Hardy, Greg Wiseman, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jakub Dalek, and Adam Senft. “Recent Observations in Tibet-Related Information Operations: Advanced Social Engineering for the Distribution of LURK Malware,”Citizen Lab Research Report No. 10, July 2012. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire. “From Bahrain With Love:  FinFisher’s Spy Kit Exposed?,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 9, July 2012.  [Download PDF version]

Jakub Dalek, Ron Deibert, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Adam Senft, Helmi Noman, and Greg Wiseman. “Routing Gone Wild: Documenting Upstream Filtering in Oman via India,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 8, University of Toronto, July 2012.  [Download PDF]

Seth Hardy, Sarah McKune, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Ron Deibert, Jakub Dalek, Adam Senft, and Greg Wiseman. “Spoofing the European Parliament,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 7, University of Toronto, June 2012. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire and Seth Hardy. “Syrian Activists Targeted with BlackShades Spy Software,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 6, University of Toronto, June 2012. [Download PDF]

Morgan Marquis-Boire. “Simurgh, Iranian Anti-Censorship Software Circulated With Malicious Backdoor (in Farsi),” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 5, University of Toronto, May 2012.

Morgan Marquis-Boire. “Iranian Anti-Censorship Software ‘Simurgh’ Circulated With Malicious Backdoor (Updated),” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 4, University of Toronto, May 2012.  [Download PDF]

Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Seth Hardy, Jakub Dalek, Sarah McKune, Adam Senft, Ron Deibert, and Greg Wiseman. “Information Operations and Tibetan Rights in the Wake of Self-Immolations: Part I,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 3, University of Toronto, March 2012. [Download PDF]

Jakub Dalek, Adam Senft, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Ron Deibert, and Greg Wiseman. “Behind Blue Coat: An Update From Burma,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 2, University of Toronto, November 2011. [Download PDF]

Jakub Dalek and Adam Senft. “Behind Blue Coat: Investigations of Commercial Filtering in Syria and Burma,” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 1, University of Toronto, November 2011. [Download PDF]

Articles, Book Chapters, and Associated Outputs by Citizen Lab Principals and Associates

Anstis, Siena, Jakub Dalek, and Ronald J. Deibert. “The Ethical and Legal Dilemmas of Digital Accountability Research and the Utility of International Norm-Setting.” AJIL Unbound 118 (2024): 40–44. https://doi.org/10.1017/aju.2024.3.

Anstis, Siena. “Regulating Transnational Dissident Cyber Espionage.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 73, no. 1 (2024): 259 – 274. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020589323000532.

Anstis, Siena. “Countering transnational dissident cyber espionage.” Binding Hook. November 7, 2023.

Marcus Michaelsen & Kris Ruijgrok (2023) Autocracy’s long reach: explaining host country influences on transnational repression, Democratization, DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2023.2267448

Anstis, Siena, Sophie Barnett, Sharly Chan, Niamh Leonard, and Ron Deibert. “The Negative Externalities of Cyberspace Insecurity and Instability for Civil Society.” In Cyberspace and Instability, edited by Robert Chesney, James Shires, and Max Smeets, 240–78. Edinburgh University Press, 2023. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/jj.7358680.13.

Anstis, S., Al-Jizawi, N., & Deibert, R. J. (2022). Transnational Repression and the Different Faces of Sovereignty. Temp. L. Rev., 95, 641. [Download PDF]

Lim, Gabrielle, and Samantha Bradshaw. “Chilling Legislation: Tracking the Impact of ‘Fake News’ Laws on Press Freedom Internationally.” Center for International Media Assistance. July 19, 2023.

Gözde Böcü & Noura Al-Jizawi (2023) Repressing in the name of? Externalization dynamics in Turkey’s use of digital repression against refugees, Democratization, DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2023.2217090

Morris, Carwyn, Andy Hanlun Li, and Lotus Ruan. “Covid Origins, Nationalism, and Diasporic Heterogeneity: China, Chineseness, and Covid-19.” In Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective, 43-57. Routledge, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003330769.

Morris, Carwyn, Andy Hanlun Li, and Lotus Ruan. “Covid Origins, Nationalism, and Diasporic Heterogeneity: China, Chineseness, and Covid-19.” Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective. Routledge 43-57. [Download PDF]

Anstis, Siena, and Sophie Barnett. “Digital Transnational Repression and Host States’ Obligation to Protect Against Human Rights Abuses.” Journal of Human Rights Practice 14, no. 2 (July 1, 2022): 698–725. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huab051.

Anstis, Siena, Niamh Leonard, and Jonathon W. Penney. “Moving from Secrecy to Transparency in the Offensive Cyber Capabilities Sector: The Case of Dual-Use Technologies Exports.” Computer Law & Security Review 48 (April 1, 2023): 105787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2022.105787.

Ermoshina, Ksenia. “‘Voices from the Island’: Informational Annexation of Crimea and Transformations of Journalistic Practices.” Journalism, January 16, 2023, 14648849231152360. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849231152359.

Deibert, Ronald J. “The Autocrat in Your IPhone.” Foreign Affairs, December 12, 2022. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/autocrat-in-your-iphone-mercenary-spyware-ronald-deibert.

Raman, Ram Sundara, Mona Wang, Jakub Dalek, Jonathan Mayer, and Roya Ensafi. “Network Measurement Methods for Locating and Examining Censorship Devices.” In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies, 18–34. CoNEXT ’22. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1145/3555050.3569133. https://conferences2.sigcomm.org/co-next/2022/#!/program

Ó Cearbhaill, Donncha, and Bill Marczak. “Exploit Archaeology: A Forensic History of in-the-Wild NSO Group Exploits,” 2022. https://www.virusbulletin.com/conference/vb2022/abstracts/exploit-archaeology-forensic-history-wild-nso-group-exploits/.

Deibert, Ronald J. “Subversion Inc: The Age of Private Espionage.” Journal of Democracy 33, no. 2 (2022): 28–44. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0016.

Abrahams, Alexei, and Gabrielle Lim (2022), “Hierarchy Over Diversity: Influence and Disinformation on Twitter,” in Cyber-Threats to Canadian Democracy, Ed. Holly Ann Garnett and Michael Pal (2022: McGill-Queen’s University Press)

Penney, Jon, and Bruce Schneier. “Platforms, Encryption, and the CFAA: The Case of WhatsApp v NSO Group.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY, March 7, 2022. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4052081.

Penney, Jon. “Understanding Chilling Effects.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY, May 28, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3855619.

Ballard, Ben, and Christopher Parsons. “Mixed Traditions: Evaluating Telecommunications Transparency.” Internet Policy Review 11, no. 1 (January 14, 2022). https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/mixed-traditions-evaluating-telecommunications-transparency.

Penney, Jon. “Understanding Chilling Effects.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY, May 28, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3855619.

Parsons, Christopher. 2022. “When and How Is the CSE Disrupting International Cybercrime?” Policy Options. March 3, 2022. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/cse-disrupting-international-cybercrime/.

Anstis, Siena. 2021. “Government Procurement Law and Hacking Technology: The Role of Public Contracting in Regulating an Invisible Market.” Computer Law & Security Review 41 (July): 105536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2021.105536.

Anstis, Siena, and R. J. Reid. 2021. “The Adverse Human Rights Impacts of Canadian Technology Companies: Reforming Export Control with the Introduction of Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence.” SSRN Scholarly Paper 3894947. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3894947.

Crete-Nishihata, Masashi, and Lokman Tsui. “‘The Truth of What’s Happening’ How Tibetan Exile Media Develop and Maintain Journalistic Authority.” Journalism, September 8, 2021, 14648849211044900. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849211044899.

Hoang, Nguyen Phong, Arian Akhavan Niaki, Jakub Dalek, Jeffrey Knockel, Pellaeon Lin, Bill Marczak, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Phillipa Gill, and Michalis Polychronakis. “How Great Is the Great Firewall? Measuring China’s DNS Censorship.” In 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21), 3381–98. USENIX Association, 2021. https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity21/presentation/hoang.

Knockel, Jeffrey, and Lotus Ruan. 2021. “Measuring QQMail’s Automated Email Censorship in China.” In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2021 Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet, 8–15. FOCI ’21. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3473604.3474560.

Akhavan Niaki, Arian, William Marczak, Sahand Farhoodi, Andrew McGregor, Phillipa Gill, and Nicholas Weaver. “Cache Me Outside: A New Look at DNS Cache Probing.” In Passive and Active Measurement, edited by Oliver Hohlfeld, Andra Lutu, and Dave Levin, 427–43. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72582-2_25.

Mahieu, René Louis Pierre, Hadi Asghari, Christopher Parsons, Joris van Hoboken, Andrew Hilts, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Siena Anstis. “Measuring the Brussels Effect through Access Requests,” 2021. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:38231/.

Poetranto, Irene, Justin Lau, and Josh Gold. “Look South: Challenges and Opportunities for the ‘Rules of the Road’ for Cyberspace in ASEAN and the AU.” Journal of Cyber Policy 6, no. 3 (September 2, 2021): 318–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/23738871.2021.2011937.

Poetranto, Irene, and Justin Lau. “Covid-19 and Its Impact on Marginalised Communities in Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines.” In COVID-19 from the Margins: Pandemic Invisibilities, Policies and Resistance in the Datafied Society, 40:95–101. Theory on Demand. Institute of Network Cultures, 2021.

Deibert, Ronald J. 2020. “The Biases of Information Security Research.” In Researching Internet Governance: Methods, Frameworks, Futures. The MIT Press. https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/4936/chapter/625915/The-Biases-of-Information-Security-Research.

Parsons, Christopher A. “Law Enforcement and Security Agency Surveillance in Canada: The Growth of Digitally-Enabled Surveillance and Atrophy of Accountability.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network, February 26, 2018. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3130240.

Ruan, Lotus, Jeffrey Knockel, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Information Control by Public Punishment: The Logic of Signalling Repression in China.” China Information 35, no. 2 (July 1, 2021): 133–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X20963010.

Gabrielle Lim (2020). “Case study: Attributing Endless Mayfly,” DataJournalism.

Ruan, Lotus, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jeffrey Knockel, Ruohan Xiong, and Jakub Dalek. 2021. “The Intermingling of State and Private Companies: Analysing Censorship of the 19th National Communist Party Congress on WeChat.” The China Quarterly 246 (June): 497–526. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741020000491.

Crete-Nishihata, Masashi, Joshua Oliver, Christopher Parsons, Dawn Walker, Lokman Tsui, and Ronald Deibert. “The Information Security Cultures of Journalism.” Digital Journalism 8, no. 8 (September 13, 2020): 1068–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2020.1777882.

Maschmeyer, Lennart, Ronald J. Deibert, and Jon R. Lindsay. “A Tale of Two Cybers – How Threat Reporting by Cybersecurity Firms Systematically Underrepresents Threats to Civil Society.” Journal of Information Technology & Politics 18, no. 1 (January 2, 2021): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2020.1776658.

Abrahams, Alexei, and Andrew Leber. “Framing a Murder: Twitter Influencers and the Jamal Khashoggi Incident.” Mediterranean Politics 26, no. 2 (March 15, 2021): 247–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2019.1697089.

Tanczer, Leonie Maria, Ronald J Deibert, Didier Bigo, M I Franklin, Lucas Melgaço, David Lyon, Becky Kazansky, and Stefania Milan. “Online Surveillance, Censorship, and Encryption in Academia.” International Studies Perspectives 21, no. 1 (February 1, 2020): 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1093/isp/ekz016.

Harkin, Diarmaid, Adam Molnar, and Erica Vowles. “The Commodification of Mobile Phone Surveillance: An Analysis of the Consumer Spyware Industry.” Crime, Media, Culture 16, no. 1 (March 1, 2020): 33–60. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659018820562.

Ruan, Lotus. 2021. “Zoning China: Online Video, Popular Culture, and the State. By Luzhou Li. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2019. 321 Pp. ISBN: 9780262043175 (Cloth).” The Journal of Asian Studies 80 (2): 460–62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911821000176.

Abrahams, Alexei. “Regional Authoritarians Target the Twittersphere.” Middle East Research and Information Project, December 17, 2019. https://merip.org/2019/12/regional-authoritarians-target-the-twittersphere/.

Leber, Andrew, and Alexei Abrahams. “A Storm of Tweets: Social Media Manipulation During the Gulf Crisis.” Review of Middle East Studies 53, no. 2 (December 2019): 241–58. https://doi.org/10.1017/rms.2019.45.

Ruan, L., Knockel, J., and Crete-Nishihata, M. “Signalling Repression: Understanding the Logic of China’s Information Controls via Public Punishment,” in 17th Chinese Internet Research Conference. Singapore June 28, 2019.

Penney, Jonathon. “Chilling Effects and Transatlantic Privacy.” European Law Journal 25, no. 2 (2019): 122–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/eulj.12315.

Deibert, Ronald, Joshua Oliver, and Adam Senft. “Censors Get Smart: Evidence from Psiphon in Iran.” Review of Policy Research 36, no. 3 (2019): 341–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12333.

Deibert, Ronald. “The Road to Digital Unfreedom: Three Painful Truths About Social Media.” Journal of Democracy 30, no. 1 (2019): 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2019.0002.

McKune, Sarah, and Shazeda Ahmed. “Authoritarian Practices in the Digital Age | The Contestation and Shaping of Cyber Norms Through China’s Internet Sovereignty Agenda.” International Journal of Communication 12, no. 0 (September 18, 2018): 21.

Penney, Jonathon, Sarah McKune, Lex Gill, and Ronald J. Deibert. “Advancing human-rights-by-design in the dual-use technology industry.” Journal of International Affairs 71, no. 2 (2018): 103-110.

Deibert, Ronald. “Toward a Human-Centric Approach to Cybersecurity.” Ethics & International Affairs 32, no. 4 (ed 2018): 411–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0892679418000618.

Phillips, Jennie. “Risk in a Digital Age: Understanding Risk in Virtual Networks through Digital Response Networks (DRNs).” International Development Planning Review 40, no. 3 (June 1, 2018): 239–73. https://doi.org/10.3828/idpr.2018.18.

Knockel, Jeffrey, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Lotus Ruan. 2018. “The Effect of Information Controls on Developers in China: An Analysis of Censorship in Chinese Open Source Projects.” In Proceedings of the First Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Internet Freedom, 1–11. Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA: Association for Computational Linguistics. https://aclanthology.org/W18-4201.

Knockel, J., Ruan, L., and Nishihata, M. “An analysis of automatic image filtering on WeChat Moments,” in 8th USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet. Baltimore, USA. August 14, 2018.

Ruan, L. “Big data in China and the battle for privacy,” for Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Canberra, Australia. June 22, 2018.

Deibert, Ronald. “Trajectories for Future Cybersecurity Research.” The Oxford Handbook of International Security, March 15, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198777854.013.35.

Parsons, Christopher, and Adam Molnar. “Government Surveillance Accountability: The Failures of Contemporary Canadian Interception Reports.” Canadian Journal of Law and Technology 16, no. 1 (January 1, 2018). https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/cjlt/vol16/iss1/4.

Knockel, Jeffrey, Lotus Ruan, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Measuring Decentralization of Chinese Keyword Censorship via Mobile Games,” 2017. https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci17/workshop-program/presentation/knockel.

Espinoza, Antonio M., William J. Tolley, Jedidiah R. Crandall, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and Andrew Hilts. “Alice and Bob, Who the FOCI Are They?: Analysis of End-to-End Encryption in the LINE Messaging Application,” 2017. https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci17/workshop-program/presentation/espinoza.

Parsons, Christopher. “The (In)Effectiveness of Voluntarily Produced Transparency Reports.” Business & Society 58, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 103–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650317717957.

Flyverbom, Mikkel, Ronald Deibert, and Dirk Matten. “The Governance of Digital Technology, Big Data, and the Internet: New Roles and Responsibilities for Business.” Business & Society 58, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650317727540.

Deibert, Ron. 2017. “Digital Threats Against Journalists.” In Journalism After Snowden: The Future of Free Press in the Surveillance State, 240–57. Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/bell17612-020.

Molnar, Adam, Christopher Parsons, and Erik Zouave. “Computer Network Operations and ‘Rule-with-Law’ in Australia.” Internet Policy Review 6, no. 1 (March 14, 2017). https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/computer-network-operations-and-rule-law-australia.

Deibert, Ronald. “Cyber-Security.” In Routledge Handbook of Security Studies, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2016.

Knockel, Jeffrey, Adam Senft, and Ronald Deibert. “Privacy and Security Issues in BAT Web Browsers,” 2016. https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci16/workshop-program/presentation/knockel.

Scott-Railton, John. “Security for the High-Risk User: Separate and Unequal.” IEEE Security & Privacy 14, no. 02 (March 1, 2016): 79–87. https://doi.org/10.1109/MSP.2016.22.

Deibert, Ronald, and John Scott-Railton. “Digitally Armed and Dangerous: Humanitarian Intervention in the Wired World.” In Cyberspace: Malevolent Actors, Criminal Opportunities and Strategic Competition, 319–67. The United States Army War College, 2016. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep11980.13.pdf

Deibert, Ron. “Authoritarianism Goes Global: Cyberspace Under Siege.” Journal of Democracy 26, no. 3 (2015): 64–78. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2015.0051.

Parsons, Christopher. “Beyond Privacy: Articulating the Broader Harms of Pervasive Mass Surveillance.” Media and Communication 3, no. 3 (October 20, 2015): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v3i3.263.

Marczak, Bill, Nicholas Weaver, Jakub Dalek, Roya Ensafi, David Fifield, Sarah McKune, Arn Rey, John Scott-Railton, Ron Deibert, and Vern Paxson. “An Analysis of China’s ‘Great Cannon,’” 2015. https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci15/workshop-program/presentation/marczak.

Deibert, Ronald. 2015. “The Geopolitics of Cyberspace After Snowden.” Current History 114, no. 768 (May 1, 2015): 9–15.

Deibert, Ronald. “Who Knows What Evils Lurk in the Shadows.” After the Paris Attacks: Responses in Canada, Europe and around the Globe, 2013, 191–202.

Hilts, A., Parsons, C. (2014). “Enabling Citizens’ Right to Information in the 21st Century,” The Winston Report, Fall 2014.

Deibert, Ronald J. “Bounding Cyber Power: Escalation and Restraint in Global Cyberspace.” Organized Chaos: Reimagining the Internet, 2014, 49. https://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/no6_2.pdf

Bennett, Colin J., Christopher Parsons, and Adam Molnar. “Real and Substantial Connections: Enforcing Canadian Privacy Laws Against American Social Networking Companies.” Journal of Law, Information & Science 23 (2014). http://www.jlisjournal.org/abstracts/bennett_etAl.23.1.html.

Ronald Deibert, Matthew Carrieri, and Saad Omar Khan, “Information Infrastructure, State Power, and Anti-Regime Protests: The Case of Iran and Tunisia,” in M. Hussain and P. Howard (Eds.), State Power 2.0: Authoritarian Entrenchment and Political Engagement Worldwide (Surrey, England: Ashgate Publications, 2013).

Deibert, Ronald. 2013. “Divide and Rule: Republican Security Theory as Civil Society Cyber Strategy.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs – International Engagement on Cyber III. 14: 39.

Crete-Nishihata, Masashi, Ronald J. Deibert, and Adam Senft. “Not by Technical Means Alone: The Multidisciplinary Challenge of Studying Information Controls.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network, May 1, 2013. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2265644.

Crandall, Jedidiah R., Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jeffrey Knockel, Sarah McKune, Adam Senft, Diana Tseng, and Greg Wiseman. “Chat Program Censorship and Surveillance in China: Tracking TOM-Skype and Sina UC.” First Monday, June 30, 2013. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v18i7.4628.

Deibert, Ronald J. “Canada and the Challenges of Cyberspace Governance and Security.” SPP Communiqué 5, no. 3 (2013). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2245305.

Deibert, R. “The Growing Dark Side of Cyberspace (… and What to Do about It).” Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs, 1 (2), 260274, 2012.

Deibert, Ronald J., and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Global Governance and the Spread of Cyberspace Controls.” Global Governance 18 (2012): 339. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/glogo18&div=30&g_sent=1&casa_token=.

Deibert, Ron. “Distributed Security as Cyber Strategy: Outlining a Comprehensive Approach for Canada in Cyberspace.” Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 14, no. 2 (2012). https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jmss/article/view/58030.

Penney, Jon. “Communications Disruption and Censorship under International Law: History Lessons.” In Proceedings of the 2nd USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI’12), 2012. https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/foci12/foci12-final13..pdf.

Deibert, Ronald. “International Mechanisms of Cyberspace Controls.” Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy, 2012, 33–46.

Ronald Deibert, “Social Media, Inc.: The Global Politics of Big Data,” World Politics Review (2012).

Ronald Deibert, “Securing Cyberspace: Canada Needs to Set an Example for Global Internet Security,” Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Review of Free Expression in Canada (2012).

Ronald Deibert, “Towards Stewardship in Cyberspace,” (The G8 Research Group, University of Toronto, 2012).

Deibert, Ronald J., Rafal Rohozinski, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Cyclones in Cyberspace: Information Shaping and Denial in the 2008 Russia–Georgia War.” Security Dialogue 43, no. 1 (February 1, 2012): 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010611431079.

Ronald Deibert, Towards a Cyber Security Strategy for Global Civil Society?,” Internet Rights and Democratisation. Global Information Society Watch (2011).

Ronald Deibert, “Asian Cyberspace on the Rise: Challenges and Opportunities for Canada,” Canada-Asia Agenda, 20 (2010).

Deibert, Ronald, and Rafal Rohozinski. “Access Contested: Toward the Fourth Phase of Cyberspace Controls.” Access Contested. Security, Identity and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace, 2012, 3–20.

Deibert, Ronald, and Rafal Rohozinski. “Contesting Cyberspace and the Coming Crisis of Authority.” Deibert et al., Access Contested, 2011, 21–41. http://access.opennet.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/accesscontested-chapter-02.pdf.

Villeneuve, Nart, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Control and Resistance: Attacks on Burmese Opposition Media.” Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace, Edited by Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain, 2012, 153–76.

Deibert, Ronald, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata. “Blurred Boundaries: Probing the Ethics of Cyberspace Research.” Review of Policy Research 28, no. 5 (2011): 531–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-1338.2011.00521.x.

Kathuria, Karl. “Bypassing Internet Censorship for News Broadcasters.” In USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI 11). San Francisco, 2011. https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/foci11/tech/final_files/Kathuria.pdf.

Deibert, Ronald, and Rafal Rohozinski. “Liberation vs. Control: The Future of Cyberspace.” Journal of Democracy 21, no. 4 (2010): 43–57. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/398730.

Deibert, Ron. “Blogging Dangerously.” Index on Censorship 39, no. 4 (December 1, 2010): 88–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306422010389889.

Deibert, Ronald J., and Rafal Rohozinski. “Risking Security: Policies and Paradoxes of Cyberspace Security.” International Political Sociology 4, no. 1 (2010): 15–32. https://academic.oup.com/ips/article/4/1/15/1917052.

Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “Control and Subversion in Russian Cyberspace,” in Access Controlled: Policies and Practices of Internet Filtering and Surveillance, eds, Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2010), 15-34.

Deibert, Ronald, and Rafal Rohozinski. “Control and Subversion in Russian Cyberspace.” Access Controlled: Policies and Practices of Internet Filtering and Surveillance, 2010, 3–14. https://techliberation.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/chapter-2.pdf.

Deibert, Ronald. “China’s Cyberspace Control Strategy: An Overview and Consideration of Issues for Canadian Policy.” Canadian International Council China Papers 7 (2010). https://courses.cs.duke.edu/common/compsci092/papers/china/deibert2010.pdf.

Deibert, Ronald, and Rafal Rohozinski. “Undercover of the Net.” Ungoverned Spaces? Alternatives to State Authority in an Era of Softened Sovereignty, 2009, 255–74.

Deibert, Ronald J. “The Geopolitics of Internet Control: Censorship, Sovereignty, and Cyberspace.” In Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics, 339–52. Routledge, 2008.

Deibert, Ronald J. “The Virtual Absence of Malice: Cyber Security and Threat Politics.” International Studies Review 11, no. 2 (2009): 373–75. http://handbook-of-internet-politics.com/pdfs/chapter_23.pdf.

Deibert, Ronald. “Black Code Redux.” Tactics in Hard Times, 2010, 137–62.

Deibert, Ronald, and Rafal Rohozinski. “Good for Liberty, Bad for Security? Global Civil Society and the Securitization of the Internet.” Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering, 2008, 123–49.

Deibert, Ronald J. “Between Essentialism and Constructivism: Harold Innis and World Order Transformations.” In The Toronto School of Communication Theory, 29–52. University of Toronto Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442689442-004.

Deibert, Ronald J., and Nart Villeneuve. “Firewalls and Power: An Overview of Global State Censorship of the Internet.” In Human Rights in the Digital Age. Routledge-Cavendish, 2004. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781843146278-11/firewalls-power-overview-global-state-censorship-internet-ronald-deibert-nart-villeneuve.

Deibert, Ronald J. “Unfettered Observation: The Politics of Earth Monitoring from Space.” Space Policy in the 21st Century (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 2003, 89–114.

Deibert, Ronald J. “Hyper-Realities of World Politics: Theorizing the Communications Revolution.” Cyber-Diplomacy: Managing Foreign Policy in the Twenty-First Century, 2002, 27–47.

Deibert, Ronald. “The Politics of Internet Design: Securing the Foundations for Global Civil Society Networks.” The E-Connected World: Risks and Opportunities, 2003.

Deibert, Ronald. “Civil Society Activism on the World Wide Web: The Case of the Anti-MAI Lobby.” Street Protests and Fantasy Parks: Globalization, Culture, and the State, 2002, 88–108.

Deibert, Ronald. “Deep Probe: The Evolution of Network Intelligence.” Intelligence and National Security 17, no. 1 (2003): 175–93. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02684520310001688925.

Deibert, Ronald. “Black Code: Censorship, Surveillance, and Militarization of Cyberspace.” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 32, no. 3 (2003): 501–30.

Deibert, Ronald, and Janice Stein. “Hacking Networks of Terror.” Dialog-IO, 2002, 1–14. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/dialogue-io/article/hacking-networks-of-terror/3C01B717A24706E44FE78221F463DA51.

Deibert, Ronald. “Circuits of Power: Security in the Internet Environment.” Information Technologies and Global Politics: The Changing Scope of Power and Governance, 2002, 115–42.

Deibert, Ronald. “Dark Guests and Great Firewalls: Chinese Internet Security Policy.” Journal of Social Issues 58, no. 1 (2001): 143–58.

Deibert, Ronald. “Neo-Medievalism.” In Routledge Encyclopaedia of International Political Economy. New York, NY, USA: Routledge, 2001.

Deibert, Ronald. “International Plug n’ Play? Citizen Activism, the Internet, and Global Public Policy.” International Studies Perspectives 1, no. 3 (2000): 255–72. https://academic.oup.com/isp/article/1/3/255/1828992.

Deibert, Ronald. “Network Power.” In Political Economy and the Changing Global Order, 2nd ed. New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Deibert, Ronald. “Out of Focus: U.S. Military Satellites and Environmental Rescue.” In Contested Grounds: Conflict and Security in the New Environmental Politics. New York, NY, USA: SUNY Press, 1999.

Deibert, Ronald. “Harold Innis and the Empire of Speed.” Review of International Studies 25, no. 2 (1999): 273–389. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-international-studies/article/harold-innis-and-the-empire-of-speed/D2CA1B724914E4EE599BE6DB5AE31930.

Deibert, Ronald. “Virtual Resources: International Relations Research on the Internet.” International Organization 52, no. 1 (1998): 221. https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/46374/WP13.pdf.

Deibert, Ronald. “Exorcismus Theoriae: Pragmatism, Metaphors and the Return of the Medieval in IR Theory.” European Journal of International Relations 3, no. 2 (1997): 267–92. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1354066197003002002.

Deibert, Ronald. “Typographica: The Medium and the Medieval to Modern Transformation.” Review of International Studies 22 (1996): 29–56. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-international-studies/article/typographica-the-medium-and-the-medievaltomodern-transformation/4EF6735516BF4B3DC259C9B24B8D3340.

Resources

Amie Bishop, Miles Kenyon, and Stephanie Tran, “Annotated Bibliography: LGBTIQ Information Controls,” August 2021.

Noura Al-Jizawi, Siena Anstis, Sharly Chan, Adam Senft, and Ron Deibert, “Annotated Bibliography: Transnational Digital Repression,” November 2020.

Siena Anstis, Sharly Chan, Adam Senft, and Ronald Deibert, “Annotated Bibliography: Dual-Use Technologies: Network Traffic Management and Device Intrusion for Targeted Monitoring,” September 2019.

Gabrielle Lim, “Disinformation Annotated Bibliography,” May 2019.

External Submissions

Kate Robertson and Lina Li, “Submission to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security,” November 28, 2023.

Siena Anstis, Ron Deibert, and Angela Yang, “Submission to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics,” August 11, 2022

Siena Anstis, Ron Deibert, Jon Penney, and Émilie LaFlèche, “Submission to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances,” June 18, 2022.

The Citizen Lab and LEAF, “Submission to the Toronto Police Services Board’s Use of New Artificial Intelligence Technologies Policy,” December 21, 2021.

Cynthia Khoo, Lex Gill, and Christopher Parsons, “Comments on the Federal Government’s Proposed Approach to Address Harmful Content Online,” September 2021.

The Citizen Lab, “Citizen Lab Response to the U. N. Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries,” February 18, 2021.

Lex Gill, Cynthia Khoo, Jeffrey Knockel, Adam Molnar, Christopher Parsons, and Kate Robertson, “Submission to the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services Consultation: Strengthening Privacy Protections in Ontario,” November 2020.

Siena Anstis, Sophie Barnett, Ron Deibert, Lex Gill, Jon Penney, RJ Reid, and Adam Senft, “Submission to the Government of Canada on the Renewal of the Responsible Business Conduct Strategy,” October 2020.

Ronald Deibert, Lex Gill, Tamir Israel, Chelsey Legge, Irene Poetranto, Amitpal Singh, “Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes, and Consequences,”, November 2017.

The Citizen Lab and Collin Anderson, “Joint Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression,” February 2015.

Technical Brief

Seth Hardy, “IEXPL0RE RAT,” Citizen Lab Technical Brief No. 1, August 2012. [Download PDF]

Books

Deibert, Ronald. Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society. House of Anansi Press, 2020.

Deibert, Ronald J. Black Code: Surveillance, Privacy, and the Dark Side of the Internet. McClelland & Stewart, 2013.

Deibert, Ronald J. Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace. McClelland & Stewart, 2013.

Deibert, Ronald, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain. Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace. MIT Press, 2011.

Deibert, Ronald, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain. Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace. MIT Press, 2010.

Deibert, Ronald, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain. Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering. MIT Press, 2008.

Deibert, Ronald. Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia: Communication and World Order Transformation. Columbia University Press, 2000.

Guides

Citizen Lab, “Everyone’s Guide to Bypassing Internet Censorship,” (Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2007).

Citizen Lab, “Everyone’s Guide to Bypassing Internet Censorship (Burmese Translation),”  (Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2007).

Citizen Lab, “Everyone’s Guide to Bypassing Internet Censorship (Russian Translation),”  (Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2007).

Citizen Lab and Canada Centre Reports

Citizen Lab and ASL 19, “After the Green Movement: Internet Controls in Iran, 2009-2012”  (Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2013).

Citizen Lab, “The Canadian Connection: An Investigation of Syrian Government and Hezbullah Web Hosting in Canada” (Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2011).

Citizen Lab, “Casting a Wider Net: Lessons Learned in Delivering BBC Content on the Censored Net” (Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2011).

Nart Villeneuve, “Search Monitor Project: Toward a Measure of Transparency,” Citizen Lab Occasional Paper No. 1, 2008.

Information Warfare Monitor Reports

Nart Villeneuve, “Koobface: Inside a Crimeware Network” (Information Warfare Monitor, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2010).

Information Warfare Monitor and Shadowserver Foundation, “Shadows in the Cloud: Investigating Cyber Espionage 2.0” (Information Warfare Monitor, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2010).

Information Warfare Monitor, “Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network” (Information Warfare Monitor, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2009).

Nart Villeneuve, “Breaching Trust: An Analysis of Surveillance and Security Practices on China’s TOM-Skype Platform” (Information Warfare Monitor, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2008).

OpEds, Comments, and Letters

Dirks, Emile, and Diana Fu. 2024. “China’s Overseas Police Stations: An Imminent Security Threat?Brookings, February 16, 2024.

Deibert, Ronald, and Gary Miller. “When You Roam, You’re Not Alone,” Lawfare, December 28, 2023.

Anstis, Siena. “Extraterritorial killings require a human-rights law response.” The Globe and Mail, September 26, 2023.

Penney, Jonathon, and Bruce Schneier, “A.I. Microdirectives Could Soon Be Used for Law Enforcement,” Slate, July 17, 2023.

Parsons, Christopher. “Don’t Give More Powers to CSE until It Submits to Effective Review.” Policy Options, November 29, 2022. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/november-2022/communications-security-establishment-review/.

Al-Jizawi, Noura, and Siena Anstis. “Wrestling the Long Arm of Authoritarianism.” Policy Options, August 19, 2022. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/august-2022/transnational-repression-protection-canada/.

Anstis, Siena, and Noura Al-Jizawi. “The Effects of Digital Transnational Repression and the Responsibility of Host States.” Lawfare (blog), May 27, 2022. https://www.lawfareblog.com/effects-digital-transnational-repression-and-responsibility-host-states.

Parsons, Christopher. “When and How Is the CSE Disrupting International Cybercrime?” Policy Options, March 3, 2022. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/cse-disrupting-international-cybercrime/.

Christopher Parsons, “When and how is the CSE disrupting international cybercrime?” Policy Options, March 3, 2022

Ronald Deibert, “Protecting Society From Surveillance Spyware,” Issues in Science and Technology, January 19, 2022.

Parsons, Christopher. 2021. “Time for a Renovation of Canada’s Privacy Laws.” The Hill Times (blog). October 27, 2021. https://www.hilltimes.com/2021/10/27/time-for-a-renovation-of-canadas-privacy-laws/324467.

Ben Ballard, “Government Contractors Have Collected Tons of Our Data in the Pandemic. What Happens to It Now?Slate, July 15, 2021.

Christopher Parsons, “The new security research rules threaten universities’ ability to be open and inclusive,” The Globe and Mail, July 14, 2021

Edin Omanovic and Siena Anstis, “Canada’s commitment to media freedom must be matched by action,” The Globe and Mail, April 16, 2021.

Ronald Deibert, “We’ve become dependent on a technological ecosystem that is highly invasive and prone to serial abuse,” The Globe and Mail, November 20, 2020.

Siena Anstis, Jonathon Penney, and Sophie Barnett, “Canadian technology is being used to thwart human rights overseas — but there are solutions,” The Toronto Star, November 1, 2020.

Kate Robertson, “New policing technology may worsen inequalityThe Toronto Star, September 1, 2020.

Adam Molnar and Christopher Parsons, “Stalkerware puts those living with abusers in even greater jeopardy during COVID-19 isolation,” CBC, May 18, 2020.

Ronald Deibert, “WeChat users outside China face surveillance while training censorship algorithms,” The Washington Post, May 7. 2020.

Christopher Parsons, “Contact tracing must not compound historical discrimination,Policy Options, April 30, 2020.

Irene Poetranto and Sinta Dewi Rosadi, “Robust personal data protection critical in COVID-19 fight,” Jakarta Post, April 17, 2020.

Tamir Israel and Christopher Parsons, “Government’s encryption proposal will undermine public safety,” The Toronto Star, August 28, 2019.

Ronald Deibert, “Follow Up Letter to South Yorkshire Pensions Authority on Investment in Novalpina Capital and NSO Group,” July 4, 2019.

Ronald Deibert, “Letter to Novalpina Capital Regarding Statement on UN Guiding Principles,” June 18, 2019.

Ronald Deibert, “Letter to South Yorkshire Pensions Authority on Novalpina Capital Investment Fund,” May 24, 2019.

Ronald Deibert and John Scott-Railton, “Opinion: Governments are deploying spyware on killers, drug lords – and journalists,” The Globe and Mail, May 3, 2019.

Ronald Deibert, “Open Letter to Jefferies Financial Group and Institutional Lending Firms Regarding NSO Group,” February 28, 2019.

Ronald Deibert, “Open Letter to Novalpina Capital on Involvement in the Purchase of NSO Group,” February 18, 2019.

Ronald Deibert, “Open Letter: Response to Google on Project Dragonfly, China, and Human Rights,” December 11, 2018.

Ronald Deibert, “Open Letter to Francisco Partners: Continued Misuse of NSO Group’s Pegasus Technology,” November 1, 2018.

Miles Kenyon, Adam Senft, and Ronald Deibert, “Identities in the crosshairs—censoring LGBTQ internet content around the world,” OpenGlobalRights, November 27, 2018.

Petra Molnar and Ronald Deibert, “Ottawa’s use of AI in immigration system has profound implications for human rights,” The Globe and Mail, September 26, 2018.

Ronald Deibert and Sarah McKune, “Google’s Dragonfly: A Bellwether for Human Rights in the Digital Age,” Just Security, August 2, 2018.

Ronald Deibert, “Ottawa needs to act on global censorship of LGBTQ2+ content,” The Hill Times, August 2, 2018.

Ronald Deibert, “Citizen Lab Open Letter in Advance of the Equal Rights Coalition Global Conference,” July 31, 2018.

Ronald Deibert, “Letter to Canada’s National Energy Board regarding “Security Threat Monitoring Services” Request for Information,” June 26, 2018.

Ronald Deibert, “Open Letter to Francisco Partners: Request for follow up on apparent misuse of Sandvine technology and sale of NSO Group to Verint Systems,” May 29, 2018.

Ronald Deibert, “Citizen Lab Submits Letter to Special Advisor to the Prime Minister on LGBTQ2 Issues,” May 3, 2018.

Christopher Parsons and Lex Gill, “Hard Questions For Canada’s Most Secret Agency,” Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, April 2018.

Ronald Deibert, “Evidence that Ethiopia is Spying on Journalists Shows Commercial Spyware is out of Control,” Wired, December 6, 2017.

Ronald Deibert and Lex Gill, “Joint Letter Concerning Bill C-59, National Security, and Human Rights,” September 19, 2017.

Ronald Deibert, “Open Letter to Blackstone Group: Human Rights Concerns and Risks with Potential NSO Acquisition,” July 25, 2017.

Ronald Deibert, “The DHS/FBI Report on Russian Hacking was a Predictable Failure,” Just Security, January 4, 2017.

Ronald Deibert, “How Foreign Governments Spy Using Powerpoint and Twitter, Washington PostAugust 2, 2016.

Ronald Deibert. “On Research in the Public Interest,” Citizen Lab, July 26, 2016.

Ronald Deibert, “Clicking I Accept Doesn’t Mean You Surrender Right To Know How A Company Uses your Data,” CBC, June 29, 2016.

Ronald Deibert, “Who Knows What Evils Lurk in the Shadows?,” OpenCanada.org, March 27, 2015.

Ronald Deibert, “When it comes to cyberspace, should national security trump user security?,” The Globe and Mail, May 21, 2015. 

Ronald Deibert, “Open letter to Hacking Team,” March 5, 2015.

Ronald Deibert, “The Cyber Security Syndrome,” OpenCanada.org, November 25, 2014.

Ronald Deibert, “Open letter to Hacking Team,” August 8, 2014.

Ronald Deibert, “Now We Know Ottawa Can Snoop on Any Canadian, What Are We Going To Do?,” Globe and Mail, January 31, 2014.

Ronald Deibert, “To Protect Canadian’s Privacy, Telcos Must Shut the ‘Back Door,’” Globe and Mail, September 16, 2013.

Ronald Deibert, “Real Privacy Means Oversight,” Globe and Mail, September 16, 2013.

Ronald Deibert, “Why NSA Spying Scares the World,” CNN, June 12, 2013.

Ronald Deibert and Sarah McKune, “Canadians Need to Understand the Scale of the Digital Arms Trade,” Ottawa Citizen, March 13, 2013.

Ronald Deibert and Sarah McKune, “Teachers’ Pension Plan Invests in Internet Surveillance Firm,” Toronto Star, February 6, 2013.

Ronald Deibert, “Cyber Security: Canada is Failing the World,” Huffington Post, Canada, May 26, 2011.

Ronald Deibert, “The New Cyber Military Industrial Complex,” Globe and Mail, March 28, 2011.

Ronald Deibert, “The Post-Cable Gate Era,” New York Times, December 11, 2010.

Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “Meet Koobface, Facebook’s Evil Doppelgänger,” Globe and Mail, November 12, 2010.

Ronald Deibert, “Worse Than You Think,” New York Times, September 22, 2010.

Ronald Deibert, “Cyberspace Confidential,” Globe and Mail, August 8, 2010.

Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “Breaking up Dark Clouds in Cyberspace,” Globe and Mail, April 6, 2010.

Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “Google, China, and the Coming Threat from Cyberspace,” Christian Science Monitor, January 28, 2010.

Ronald Deibert, “More Than a Tech Problem,” New York Times, January 16, 2010.

Ronald Deibert, “Google, China, and a Wake up Call to Protect the Net,” Globe and Mail, January 14, 2010.

Ronald Deibert, “Smarter Sleuthing Can Save Our Online Privacy,” Globe and Mail, November 2, 2009.

Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “Ottawa Needs a Strategy for Cyberwar,” National Post, June 30, 2009.  

Ronald Deibert, “Arms Control in Cyberspace,” New York Times, May 29, 2009.

Ronald Deibert, “The Internet: Collateral Damage,” Globe and Mail, January 1, 2003.

CyberWatch

Latin America and the Caribbean CyberWatch.

Middle East and North Africa CyberWatch.

Social Media CyberWatch.

Southeast Asia CyberWatch.

OpenNet Initiative Outputs

ONI outputs can also be accessed at the ONI’s website.

The most recent ONI research on Internet filtering in specific areas can be found in the ONI’s country and regional profile sections.

Bulletins & Advisories

ONI issues bulletins and advisories to attract attention to recent events and recently-released documents and research concerning Internet filtering.

OpenNet Initiative, “China’s Green Dam: The Implications of Government Control Encroaching on the Home PC ,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, June 2009. 

OpenNet Initiative, “Pulling the Plug: A Technical Review of the Internet Shutdown in Burma,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, November 2007.

OpenNet Initiative, “China Tightens Controls on Internet News Content Through Additional Regulations ,” OpenNet Initiative, July 2006.

OpenNet Initiative, “Analysis of China’s Non-Commercial Web Site Registration Regulation,” OpenNet Initiative, February 2006.

OpenNet Initiative, “Telus Blocks Consumer Access to Labour Union Web Site and Filters an Additional 766 Unrelated Sites,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, August 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “Election Monitoring in Kyrgyzstan,” OpenNet Initiative Special Report, April 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “Collateral Blocking: Filtering by South Korean Government of Pro-North Korean,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, January 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “Filtering by Domestic Blog Providers in China,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, January 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “Geolocation Filtering: Georgewbush.com Blocked During Run-up to Election,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, October 2004.

OpenNet Initiative, “Google Search & Cache Filtering Behind China’s Great Firewall,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, August 2004.

OpenNet Initiative, “Probing Chinese Search Engine Filtering,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, August 2004.

OpenNet Initiative, “Internet Content Filtering in India: Variations in Compliance and Accuracy,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, May 2004.

OpenNet Initiative, “Unintended Risks and Consequences of Circumvention Technologies: The IBB’s Anonymizer Service in Iran,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, August 2004.

OpenNet Initiative, “ OpenNet Initiative: Bulletin 002,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin Advisory, March 2004.

OpenNet Initiative, “OpenNet Initiative: Bulletin 001,” OpenNet Initiative Bulletin, March 2004.

Internet Watch

Internet Watch reports investigate emerging trends in Internet filtering and control. These occasional reports take a detailed look at events, policies, technologies and countries where filtering and content controls are occurring in new and unexpected ways, or where filtering has been alleged but undetected using conventional ONI testing methodologies. They are designed to test hypotheses, refine monitoring techniques, and report on the cutting edge of the global informational battle space.

OpenNet Initiative, “Internet Watch Report: The 2007 Presidential Election in Nigeria,” OpenNet Initiative Internet Watch Report, November 2007.

OpenNet Initiative, “Internet Watch Report: The Internet and Elections: The 2006 Presidential Election in Belarus (And its Implications),” OpenNet Initiative Internet Watch Report, April 2006.

Case Studies

ONI case studies are in-depth reports of Internet filtering for a selection of countries that predate our current country profiles.

OpenNet Initiative, “Vietnam,” OpenNet Initiative Case Study, August 2006.

OpenNet Initiative, “Tunisia,” OpenNet Initiative Case Study, November 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “Burma,” OpenNet Initiative Case Study, October 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “China,” OpenNet Initiative Case Study, April 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “Bahrain,” OpenNet Initiative Case Study, February 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “United Arab Emirates,” OpenNet Initiative Case Study, February 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “Iran,” OpenNet Initiative Case Study, 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “Yemen,” OpenNet Initiative Case Study, 2005.

OpenNet Initiative, “Saudi Arabia,” OpenNet Initiative Case Study, 2004.