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At SecTor 2026 in Toronto, Citizen Lab founder and director Ron Deibert warned that commercial spyware, government surveillance, and AI-enabled disinformation are reinforcing authoritarian practices. Dark Reading’s October 7, 2026 account describes his argument and his use of the phrase “techno-fascism”; that is Deibert’s political characterization, not an independently established label for the people he criticized.
What Deibert argued at SecTor 2026
According to Dark Reading’s report, published October 7, 2026, Deibert’s keynote brought together concerns about commercial spyware investigations, state surveillance, political uses of AI, and technology executives whose companies or public views he criticized. The report says he used “techno-fascism” to frame the convergence he sees between technology and authoritarian power.
Dark Reading reproduced Deibert as saying, “I’ve been studying authoritarianism my entire life. Political science is my area of expertise. And what is going on in the United States ticks every single box.” The available reporting does not establish a recording or transcript against which to independently check the quotation, so it should be understood as a quote reproduced by the outlet.
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Why spyware can defeat the protection people expect from encrypted messaging
End-to-end encryption protects a message while it travels between communicating devices. It cannot protect information after it is exposed on a compromised device. In written testimony dated March 12, 2026, Deibert explained that spyware operating on a phone can access its contents and communications at the endpoint, where messages may be readable before encryption or after decryption.
That distinction matters: an encrypted messaging app may secure the transmission without securing a phone that an attacker has compromised. Deibert’s testimony recounts Citizen Lab’s investigation of the hacking of Omar Abdulaziz’s device with Pegasus and later forensic findings concerning members of Jamal Khashoggi’s circle. See Deibert’s written testimony for the technical and investigative context.
What Citizen Lab’s Paragon investigation does—and does not—show
Citizen Lab’s March 19, 2025 report, “Virtue or Vice? A First Look at Paragon’s Proliferating Spyware Operations,” says Paragon Solutions sells Graphite spyware and describes the lab’s infrastructure analysis, device forensics, and investigation of activity in multiple countries.
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The report also said that contracting between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Paragon had reportedly been paused under White House review at the end of 2024. That is a dated account, not confirmation of the contract’s later status. Dark Reading’s 2026 article discusses developments involving the contract, sanctions involving Intellexa, and NSO Group ownership and an executive-chair appointment, but the available sources here do not independently verify the current status of those matters.
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What the report says about AI-generated disinformation
Dark Reading reports that Deibert used “slopoganda” for AI-generated material used to confuse or mislead. The report also reproduces his warning: “All of the threats that the Citizen Lab has investigated for the last 25 years are suddenly now being super-charged thanks to AI.” No quantified estimate of this material’s prevalence, reach, or impact is supplied, so the phrase describes his concern rather than a measured scale of harm.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Who Deibert is
Citizen Lab’s profile identifies Deibert as the lab’s founder and director. It describes the organization’s work on cyber espionage, commercial spyware, internet censorship, and digital threats to human rights. The profile also lists his book Chasing Shadows: Cyber Espionage, Subversion, and the Global Fight for Democracy as further reading; it is not necessary to understand the SecTor keynote.
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