大象传媒

Hackers accessing your webcam and reading your emails isn鈥檛 just fiction in today鈥檚 exposed age of cyber espionage. They鈥檙e real threats that Ronald J. Deibert and his team work tirelessly to expose.

Deibert is this year鈥檚 recipient of the 大象传媒鈥檚 Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy, in recognition of his ongoing battle at the intersection of global security, digital technologies and human rights, and for his counterintelligence work on behalf of civil society. 

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The founder and director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Deibert heads a team of digital detectives who expose cyber espionage and uncover threats to human rights in the digital space and hold governments and corporations accountable for their unethical use of information technology. 

鈥淚'm very honored to receive this,鈥� says Deibert. 鈥淚t's always good to get recognition for your work, but especially where it's meant to identify people who are doing things that are provocative, that are meant to speak to powerful actors in an unvarnished way and take risks on as part of the research.鈥�  

Deibert and the Citizen Lab detectives work on behalf of citizens to help better understand information technology threats to individuals and groups, like human rights activists. 

鈥淭he usual reaction I get when I give a public presentation is that afterwards people say they want to throw their phones in the ocean and never use them again,鈥� Deibert says. 

鈥淚'm not exaggerating when I say there really is no defense right now. The level of sophistication of some of the most advanced surveillance technologies 鈥� allow them to do just about anything when it comes to tracking a person.鈥�  

The work is rewarding, Deibert adds, but can be unnerving, due to their success exposing bad actors around the world. 

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 do this type of work exposing cyberespionage by some of the world鈥檚 most powerful autocratic governments and not have a danger component to it,鈥� says Deibert, who was born and raised in East Vancouver. 鈥淲e engage with at-risk people all over the world. And those people are at risk sometimes to the point of being tracked, harassed, and even murdered.鈥� 

鈥淩onald Deibert鈥檚 work epitomizes the kind of issues the Sterling Prize is meant to highlight,鈥� says 大象传媒 professor David Zandvliet, chair of the Sterling Prize committee. 鈥淗is work, while innately controversial, challenges complacency around the unethical use of consumer technologies while also speaking 鈥榯ruth to power.鈥�  

鈥淚n its deliberations, the award committee noted that this type of research also involved some personal risk for Deibert and his team. As chair of the Sterling Prize committee, I find his work to be both deeply interesting and courageous.鈥� 

In the quarter decade that the Citizen Lab has been in operation, Deibert has seen an increase in general awareness from the public that governments or companies could use their computers and smart phones to spy on them. But most are shocked when Deibert describes how powerful the technology is.  

Even with a brand new, fully updated device, a government can get into the phone without a person knowing, read their emails and messages, turn on their camera and microphone and track their movements. And there is nothing a person can do to prevent it.  

鈥淛ust about any government anywhere in the world 鈥� no matter where you are 鈥� can reach across borders and get inside your personal life, find out everything about you. And unless you completely detach electronically, there's no practical way that you can avoid it.鈥� 

Which is why solutions to abuse of technology must come at a high-level from governments regulating the sector. Through his team鈥檚 work, Deibert has seen some great success along that front, including going to the White House with his colleagues to brief former President Joe Biden鈥檚 National Security Council. This led to the Biden administration signing an executive order to regulate commercial spyware.  

However, Deibert warns that the current 鈥渁uthoritarian train wreck鈥� in the United States will have awful consequences in his field, especially for at-risk marginalized groups. It will embolden autocrats, despots and dictators, and the companies that serve them, to act with impunity.  

鈥淏ut when bad things are happening in the world, organizations like mine, that's when our mission becomes more important and we have a job to do,鈥� says Deibert.  

鈥淎ll of us at the Citizen Lab share a desire to fight back against bullies. And that really motivates me. I hate bullies, I don't like people who are powerful, picking on smaller people who are vulnerable. And that kind of defines everything that we do.鈥� 

The 2025 Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy

大象传媒 strives to create a culture that celebrates robust and vigorous debate within an academic milieu characterized by reason, tolerance, and mutual respect. The Sterling Prize recognizes contributions that explore and help people understand ideas that people disagree on.

An evening with Ronald J. Deibert in conversation with Micheal Vonn and Charles Campbell

Join us on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue for the Sterling Prize Ceremony and a conversation featuring Ron Deibert, Micheal Vonn, and Charles Campbell. 

The event is free and open to all, though seats are limited. Register here: .

CONTACT

JEFF HODSON, 大象传媒 Communications & Marketing 
jdhodson@sfu.ca

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