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November 18, 2010
The Citizen Lab, a research program led by Ron Deibert, that ferrets out cyber attacks and espionage, has been awarded the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) 2010 Vox Libera Award. The Citizen Lab was selected for its dedication to free expression and access to information online. World leaders in the field of “hacktivism,” the Citizen Lab’s members focus their research on documenting cases of internet espionage and censorship around the world, reinforcing the idea that the Internet should remain a safe, public domain.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) champions the free expression rights of journalists and media workers around the world. The Vox Libera Award is an annual award granted to a Canadian or Canadian organization that has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the principles of free expression and has made an important and sustained contribution at home or abroad to those same principles.
The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs,at the University of Toronto, Canada focusing on advanced research and development at the intersection of digital media, global security, and human rights. In 2010, Citizen Lab (and its partner the SecDev Group) uncovered 1,294 computers in 103 countries (embassies, government agencies etc. including to the desktop of the Dalai Lama) that had been compromised by a virus originating out of servers in China. The Citizen Lab developed the psiphon censorship circumvention software, and continues to provide “red team” research, threat analysis, and support for open source development for Psiphon Inc through the Psi-Lab project.
Congratulations to Ron Deibert and the Citizen Lab! A full media release about the award is available here.