Citizen Lab Director Warns Cyber Industry About US Authoritarian Descent

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 about a growing threat: the descent into authoritarianism in the United States. On Wednesday, Deibert will deliver a keynote at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, one of the largest gatherings of information security professionals of the year.

Ahead of his talk, Deibert told TechCrunch that he plans to speak about what he describes as a "descent into a kind of fusion of tech and fascism," and the role that big tech platforms are playing in propelling forward a "really frightening type of collective insecurity" that isn't typically addressed by this crowd, this community, as a cybersecurity problem.

"I think alarm bells need to be rung for this community that, at the very least, they should be aware of what's going on and hopefully they can not contribute to it, if not help reverse it," Deibert told TechCrunch. Historically, at least in the United States, the cybersecurity industry has put politics to one side. More recently, however, politics has fully entered the world of cybersecurity.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into former CISA director Chris Krebs, who had publicly rebuffed Trump's false claims about election fraud by declaring the 2020 election secure. Trump later fired Krebs by tweet. The investigation ordered by Trump months after his 2024 reelection forced Krebs to step down from SentinelOne and vow to fight back.

In response, Jen Easterly, another former CISA director and Krebs' successor, called on the cybersecurity community to get involved and speak out. "If we stay silent when experienced, mission-driven leaders are sidelined or sanctioned, we risk something greater than discomfort; we risk diminishing the very institutions we are here to protect," Easterly wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

A Descent into Authoritarianism

Deibert is echoing the same message as Easterly. "I think that there comes a point at which you have to recognize that the landscape is changing around you, and the security problems you set out for yourselves are maybe trivial in light of the broader context and the insecurities that are being propelled forward in the absence of proper checks and balances and oversight, which are deteriorating," said Deibert.

The Role of Big Tech

Deibert is also concerned that big companies like Meta, Google, and Apple could take a step back in their efforts to fight against government spyware by gutting their threat intelligence teams. These threat intelligence teams are dedicated groups of security researchers that track government hackers and detect hacks against their own users.

"This market failure is going to get more acute as supporting institutions evaporate and attacks on civil society amplify," Deibert said. "Whatever they can do to contribute to offset this market failure (e.g., pro bono work) will be essential to the future of liberal democracy worldwide," he added.

A Market Failure

Deibert believes there is a huge market failure when it comes to cybersecurity for global civil society, a part of the population that generally cannot afford to get help from big security companies that typically serve governments and corporate clients. "This market failure is going to get more acute as supporting institutions evaporate and attacks on civil society amplify," he said.

"Whatever they can do to contribute to offset this market failure (e.g., pro bono work) will be essential to the future of liberal democracy worldwide," Deibert added.