Pluralistic: Ron Deibert’s “Chasing Shadows” (04 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyberespionage Firm Circles - The Citizen Lab

Circles is a surveillance firm that reportedly exploits weaknesses in the global mobile phone system to snoop on calls, texts, and the location of phones around the globe, and is affiliated with NSO Group, which develops the oft-abused Pegasus spyware. Using Internet scanning, we found a unique signature associated with the hostnames of Check Point firewalls used in Circles deployments, enabling us to identify Circles deployments in at least 25 countries.

Digital Threat Modeling Under Authoritarianism - Schneier on Security

Today’s world requires us to make complex and nuanced decisions about our digital security. Evaluating when to use a secure messaging app like Signal or WhatsApp, which passwords to store on your smartphone, or what to share on social media requires us to assess risks and make judgments accordingly. Arriving at any conclusion is an exercise in threat modeling. In security, threat modeling is the process of determining what security measures make sense in your particular situation. It’s a way to think about potential risks, possible defenses, and the costs of both. It’s how experts avoid being distracted by irrelevant risks or overburdened by undue costs...

AI-Enabled Influence Operation Against Iran - Schneier on Security

Citizen Lab has uncovered a coordinated AI-enabled influence operation against the Iranian government, probably conducted by Israel. Key Findings A coordinated network of more than 50 inauthentic X profiles is conducting an AI-enabled influence operation. The network, which we refer to as “PRISONBREAK,” is spreading narratives inciting Iranian audiences to revolt against the Islamic Republic of Iran. While the network was created in 2023, almost all of its activity was conducted starting in January 2025, and continues to the present day. The profiles’ activity appears to have been synchronized, at least in part, with the military campaign that the Israel Defense Forces conducted against Iranian targets in June 2025. ...

Ron Deibert Warns Cybersecurity Industry About U.S. Authoritarian Descent - The Citizen Lab

Ahead of his keynote at Black Hat USA, Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert spoke with TechCrunch reporter Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai about what he describes as a “descent into a kind of fusion of tech and fascism.”

I'm Spending the Year at the Munk School - Schneier on Security

This academic year, I am taking a sabbatical from the Kennedy School and Harvard University. (It’s not a real sabbatical—I’m just an adjunct—but it’s the same idea.) I will be spending the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters at the Munk School at the University of Toronto. I will be organizing a reading group on AI security in the fall. I will be teaching my cybersecurity policy class in the Spring. I will be working with Citizen Lab, the Law School, and the Schwartz Reisman Institute. And I will be enjoying all the multicultural offerings of Toronto...

Citizen Lab Director Warns Cyber Industry About US Authoritarian Descent - Slashdot

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Ron Deibert, the director of Citizen Lab, one of the most prominent organizations investigating government spyware abuses, is sounding the alarm to the cybersecurity community and asking them to step up and join the fight against authoritarianism....