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Internet censorship: what governments around the globe have in store for you

Presented at DEF CON 31 (2023), Aug. 12, 2023, noon (45 minutes)

The internet is still largely centralized, and not every country has strong institutional controls preserving the right to access information or speak freely. Heck, even many "liberal democracies" are backsliding. While this may sound like an infosec talk suited for the think tank crowd, these developments are impacting hackers and the results they present at hacker cons. Internet freedom tools are about empowering users to have the safety to make their own priorities. While China, Iran, and Russia are obviously key concerns in this space, many other countries are seeking to enact new laws and regulations that impact all types of users -- some with nefarious intent and others just accidentally harmful. This conversation will explore the reasons, the symptoms, and some ideas about how to preserve our ability to set our own priorities. We will offer a holistic and detailed picture of how censorship affects our work and that of our colleagues -- how even if you feel secure in the freedom you have where you are right now, government censorship and surveillance in other places will unquestionably affect us all. REFERENCES: Some starting points: * Articles on general internet censorship in China, Russia, Iran. * Censorship measurement toolkits like OONI and Censored Planet. * Last year's Defcon talk, "How Russia is trying to block Tor" * An old but alas still very relevant primer, "Ten things to look for in a circumvention tool": https://svn-archive.torproject.org/svn/projects/articles/circumvention-features.html * Recent terrible laws proposed in England: https://cdt.org/insights/indias-new-cybersecurity-order-drives-vpn-providers-to-leave-chilling-speech-and-subjecting-more-indians-to-government-surveillance * and in India: https://cdt.org/insights/indias-new-cybersecurity-order-drives-vpn-providers-to-leave-chilling-speech-and-subjecting-more-indians-to-government-surveillance * The move by the EU to block rt.com: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/03/08/eu-officials-defend-move-to-ban-rt-and-sputnik-amid-censorship-claims

Presenters:

  • Jeff Moss / The Dark Tangent - DEF CON Communications   as Jeff "The Dark Tangent" Moss
    Mr. Moss is an internet security expert and is the founder of Both the Black Hat Briefings and DEF CON Hacking conferences. In 2022 Mr. Moss was named to the UK Government Cybersecurity Advisory Board, and in 2021 he was sworn in as a member of the DHS Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Advisory Council (CSAC), and serves as a chairman of their Technical Advisory Council (TAC). Mr. Moss is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and is interested in policy issues around privacy, national security, and internet governance. He spends a lot of time in Singapore.
  • Joel Todoroff - Office of the National Cyber Director
    Joel Todoroff works for the Office of the National Cyber Director, where he provides legal and policy support on a range of issues, including commercial spyware and securing the foundations of the internet. He has previously worked with the Department of Defense, intelligence community, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
  • Chris Painter - President at Global Forum on Cyber Expertise
    Chris Painter is the President of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise. He served as the first top cyber diplomat in the U.S. State Department, in the White House as Senior Director for Cyber Policy in the National Security Council, and in the Justice Department and the FBI. Awards include the RSA Award for Excellence in the Field of Public Policy (2016), the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, and the Intelligence Community Legal Award (2008).
  • Roger Dingledine - The Tor Project
    Roger Dingledine is president and co-founder of the Tor Project, a nonprofit that develops free and open source software to protect people from tracking, censorship, and surveillance online. Roger works with journalists and activists on many continents to help them understand and defend against the threats they face, and he is a lead researcher in the online anonymity field. EFF picked him for a Pioneer Award, and Foreign Policy magazine chose him as one of its top 100 global thinkers.

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