Citizen Lab

The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Canada. Founded (and currently directed by) Professor Ronald Deibert, the Citizen Lab focuses on advanced research and development at the intersection of digital media, global security, and human rights.

A “hothouse” that combines the disciplines of political science, sociology, computer science, engineering, and graphic design, the Citizen Lab’s mission is to undertake advanced research and engage in development that monitors, analyses, and impacts the exercise of political power in cyberspace. This mission is executed through a pioneering “fusion” methodology that combines technical reconnaissance, field investigations, data fusion, analysis, and visualization.

Projects are carried out with the assistance and collaboration of multiple private and public partners including the SecDev Group (Ottawa), Psiphon Inc., the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and Palantir Technologies.

The Citizen Lab’s ongoing research network includes the Information Warfare Monitor, the OpenNet Initiative, OpenNet.Asia, OpenNet.Eurasia, the Fusion Methodology Centre, and PsiLab.

The research of the Citizen Lab has been supported in the past by generous grants from the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and is currently supported by the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies (University of Toronto), generous grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), in-kind and staff contributions from the SecDev Group, and a generous donation of software from Palantir Technologies.

Projects and Initiatives

Information Warfare Monitor

The Information Warfare Monitor is public-private venture between the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto and The SecDev Group, an operational think tank based in a Ottawa (Canada). It is an advanced research activity tracking the emergence of cyberspace as a strategic domain. It is an independent research effort with the stated mission of building and broadening the evidence base available to scholars, policy makers, and others.

In 2008, the Information Warfare Monitor discovered a surveillance network being operated by Skype and its Chinese Partner, TOM Online, which insecurely and routinely collected, logged, and captured millions of records (including personal information and contact details for any text chat and/or voice calls placed to TOM-Skype users, including those from the Skype platform).^[1]

In 2009, after a 10-month investigation, the Information Warfare Monitor discovered and named GhostNet, a suspected cyber-espionage operation, based mainly in the People's Republic of China, which has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries 30% of which were high-value targets, including ministries of foreign affairs, embassies, international organizations, news media, and NGOs.^[2]

In their 2010 followup report, Shadows in the Cloud: Investigating Cyber Espionage 2.0, the Information Warfare Monitor documented a complex ecosystem of cyber espionage that systematically targeted and compromised computer systems in India, the Offices of the Dalai Lama, the United Nations, and several other countries. The investigation recovered a large quantity of stolen documents – including sensitive and classified materials – belonging to government, business, academic, and other computer network systems and other politically sensitive targets.^[3]

Having discovered archived copies of the Koobface botnet's infrastructure on a well-known Koobface command and control server, Information Warfare Monitor researchers documented the inner workings of Koobface in their 2010 report, Koobface: Inside a Crimeware Network.^[4] Researchers discovered that in just one year, Koobface generated over US$2million in profits.^[5]

OpenNet Initiative

The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) is a joint project whose goal is to investigate, expose, and analyze Internet filtering and surveillance practices in a credible and non-partisan fashion. It intends to uncover the potential pitfalls and unintended consequences of these practices, and thus help to inform better public policy and advocacy work in this area.

In 2003, thanks to support from the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Institute, the OpenNet Initiative was formed with the Citizen Lab, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and the Advanced Network Research Group at University of Cambridge UK as the founding partners. Ronald Deibert (Toronto), John Palfrey (Harvard), Rafal Rohozinski (Cambridge), and Jonathan Zittrain (Harvard) were (and remain) the co-founders and principal investigators of the ONI. Since 2003, the ONIʼs network has evolved and grown. The Oxford Internet Institute was a contributing partner from 2006-2007. After Rafal Rohozinski moved from Cambridge University to Canada to set up a private think tank, the SecDev Group replaced Cambridge as a core partner.

The ONI has developed extensive regional networks of researchers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (Opennet.Eurasia) and throughout Asia (Opennet.Asia). More than 100 individuals participate in some manner in the ONIʼs testing, research, and analysis.

The ONI published the first global survey of Internet censorship in its edited volume, Access Denied: The Practice and Politics of Internet Filtering, through MIT Press in 2008.^[6]

The ONI's second volume, Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights and Rule in Cyberspace, was published through MIT Press in 2010.^[7]

Psiphon

Psiphon is censorship circumvention software that was originally developed by the Citizen Lab. In 2008 Psiphon was spun off as a Canadian corporation that continues to develop advanced censorship circumvention systems and technologies. Psiphon Inc. and the Citizen Lab occasionally collaborate on research and other projects under the Psi-Lab partnership.

Awards

The Citizen Lab was named the winner of the 2010 Vox Libera Award, an award granted by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression to a Canadian individual or organization for outstanding commitment to the principles of free expression.^[8]

External links

• Official website
• Ron Deibert's page at CitizenLab
• Psiphon
• OpenNet Initiative
• The Information Warfare Monitor
• Everyone's Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship for Citizens Worldwide
• The SecDev Group
• Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a cyber espionage network

References

1. ^ Breaching Trust Retrieved 2010-09-11
2. ^ Shadows in the Cloud: Investigating Cyber Espionage 2.0 Retrieved 2010-09-11
3. ^ Tracking GhostNet Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network Retrieved 2010-09-11
4. ^ Koobface: Inside a Crimeware Network Retrieved 2010-11-12
5. ^ Meet Koobface, Facebook's evil doppelgänger Retrieved 2010-11-12
6. ^ Access Denied: The Practice and Politics of Internet Filtering Retrieved 2010-11-12
7. ^ Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights and Rule in Cyberspace Retrieved 2010-11-12
8. ^ Toronto's Citizen Lab wins press freedom award Retrieved 2010-11-16