The Citizen Lab

Internet censorship liable to WTO challenge - study
Posted Nov 04, 2009 in LawandPolicy by sgolshan. 
GENEVA (Reuters) - Censorship of the Internet is open to challenge at the World Trade Organisation as it can restrict trade in services delivered online, a forthcoming study
says. From Reuters

Malware: enemy of the state
Posted Nov 04, 2009 in InfoWar by sgolshan. 
The British government wants to stop filesharing to protect copyright owners, but shows no similar enthusiasm for protecting the general public from malware, which is arguably more important to us – and perhaps to the nation. After all, what happens to e-commerce if people don't feel secure enough to buy things, do their banking or interact with government online? From The Guardian

Introducing Threatened Voices
Posted Nov 04, 2009 in BloggerArrests by sgolshan. 
Never before have so many people been threatened or imprisoned for what the words they write on the internet.

As activists and ordinary citizens have increasingly made use of the internet to express their opinions and connect with others, many governments have also increased surveillance, filtering, legal actions and harassment. The harshest consequence for many has been the politically motivated arrest of bloggers and online writers for their online and/or offline activities, in some tragic cases even leading to death. Online journalists and bloggers now represent 45% of all media workers in prison worldwide. From Global Voices

Map of threatened or arrested bloggers around the world
Posted Nov 04, 2009 in BloggerArrests by sgolshan. 
Global Voices has an interactive map showing bloggers who have been threatened, arrested, or killed for speaking out online. The United States has one — Elliot Madison was taken by the FBI for spreading word on Twitter on how to evade police arrest during the G20 protests in Pittsburgh on September 24th and released on bail shortly after. China has the most with 33 on record; Egypt is a close second with 29. From Electronic Frontier Foundation

Hossein Derakhshan, now detained for over a year
Posted Nov 04, 2009 in BloggerArrests by sgolshan. 
Hossein Derakhshan (”Hoder”) has now been in prison in Iran for more than a year. My friend Cyrus Farivar has followed his case closely, and has been in touch with Hoder’s family, who confirm that he’s beeing held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Reports from the activist group Human Rights in Iran suggest that Hoder has been held in solitary confinement for long periods of time, beaten and otherwise mistreated, and that Hoder was considering a hunger strike to protest his extended detention. From Blog of Ethan Zuckerman

China leapfrogs ahead in cyber warfare
Posted Nov 04, 2009 in MediaCoverage by sgolshan. 
Kolkata, India — The fact that China’s People's Liberation Army is building up its cyber warfare capabilities to be able to defend from and attack enemy computer systems is well-known. So is its decade-old sweeping military modernization program that has transformed its ability to fight high-tech wars. From UPI Asia

Eye Opener: The cybersecurity debate intensifies
Posted Nov 04, 2009 in InfoWar by sgolshan. 
Happy Monday! (Unless you're the New York Giants.) Congressional debate over how the government should ward off future cybersecurity attacks continues Monday, as a leading Republican lawmaker will propose giving the Homeland Security Department the lead on the government's efforts to combat dangerous, expensive computer attacks. From The Washington Post

Smarter sleuthing can save our online privacy (Globe and Mail)
Posted Nov 03, 2009 in Citizen Lab News by ProfD. 
In a time when every person's digital life is now turned inside out and electronically dispersed and disaggregated, does it really make sense to think solutions lie in adding to that flood? Law enforcement and intelligence don't need to sidestep court protections and civil liberties to meet the challenges of cyber crime – they need a new investigatory paradigm.


From the Globe and Mail here

Toronto’s Citizen Lab uses forensics to fight online censors
Posted Nov 02, 2009 in Citizen Lab News by ProfD. 
"A basement in the gray, Gothic heart of the University of Toronto is home to the CSI of cyberspace. “We are doing free expression forensics,” says Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab, based at the Munk Centre for International Studies. Deibert and his team of academics and students investigate in real time governments and companies that restrict what we see and hear on the Internet. They are also trying to help online journalists and bloggers slip the shackles of censorship and surveillance."


From the Committee to Protect Journalists, found here

Reacting To Lawful Access: Comparing the Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP
Posted Oct 30, 2009 in LawandPolicy by sgolshan. 
Earlier this week, I posted on the Liberals first reaction to Bill C-46, part one of the lawful access package. Rather than focusing on substantive issues, the immediate response was "what took you so long," an obvious effort to appear even tougher on crime. C-46 was sent to committee for further study on Tuesday. Immediately afterward, C-47, the other half of lawful access came up for second reading. This part of the bill is particularly problematic is it raises the prospect of mandatory disclosure of personal information without a warrant and requires ISPs to install new surveillance capabilities on their networks.
From Michael Geist