Bio

Ron Deibert (PhD, University of British Columbia) is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary research and development hothouse working at the intersection of the Internet, global security, and human rights. He is a co-founder and a principal investigator of the OpenNet Initiative and Information Warfare Monitor projects.

Deibert was one of the founders and (former) VP of global policy and outreach for Psiphon Inc. and a founder of SecDev.cyber.

Deibert has published numerous articles, chapters, and three books on issues related technology, media, and world politics. He was one of the authors of the Tracking Ghostnet report that documented an alleged cyber-espionage network affecting over 1200 computers in 103 countries, and the Shadows in the Cloud report, which analyzed a cloud-based espionage network.

He has been a consultant and advisor to governments, human rights groups, and humanitarian organizations on issues relating to Internet censorship, surveillance and information warfare. He presently serves on the editorial board of the journals International Political Sociology, Security Dialogue, Explorations in Media Ecology, and Astropolitics, and is on the advisory board of The SecDev Group, The Watson Institute for International Studies’ InfoTechWarPeace project (Brown University), Access, and is a member of the board of directors of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.

Deibert’s research has been featured in newspapers, television, and radio shows, including the New York Times, BBC, Globe and Mail, CBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, WIRED, and the Far Eastern Economic Review. He was awarded the University of Toronto Outstanding Teaching Award (2002) and the Northrop Frye Distinguished Teaching and Research Award (2002), and was a Ford Foundation research scholar of Information and communication technologies (2002-2004). He was named to the Macleans magazine honour roll as “one of 39 Canadians to have helped make the world a better place in 2006″, and to Esquire magazine’s “Best and Brightest” list of 2007.