US Cybersecurity Industry Must Confront Authoritarianism, Warns Citizen Lab Director

Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert warns the cybersecurity community about the US descent into authoritarianism, urging them to step up and join the fight against it. Deibert plans to address the role of big tech platforms in promoting collective insecurity and the need for the community to address it as a cybersecurity problem. The recent political events in the US are seen as a "descent into fascism" that the community can help defend against.

Ron Deibert, the director of Citizen Lab, a prominent organization investigating government spyware abuses, has issued a stark warning to the cybersecurity community. Speaking ahead of his keynote at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, Deibert described the recent political events in the United States as a "dramatic descent into authoritarianism" that the cybersecurity community can help defend against [1].

Deibert's warning comes at a time when the political landscape in the US has become increasingly contentious. The former CISA director, Chris Krebs, was publicly rebuked by President Trump for declaring the 2020 election secure, leading to his investigation and eventual firing. Similarly, Jen Easterly, Krebs' successor, called on the cybersecurity community to get involved and speak out against political pressures [1].

Deibert is particularly concerned about the role of big tech platforms in promoting collective insecurity. He fears that companies like Meta, Google, and Apple could scale back their efforts to fight government spyware by reducing their threat intelligence teams. These teams are crucial for detecting hacks and ensuring user security, as demonstrated by incidents like the WhatsApp hack in 2019 [1].

Moreover, the Trump Justice Department has been embroiled in a corporate coup attempt, exposing major rifts within the GOP coalition and a rampant culture of pay-to-play corruption. The department walked back its own lawsuit blocking a $14 billion tech megamerger pursued by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) just weeks before the case was set to go to trial [2].

Deibert's call to action comes as a reminder that the cybersecurity community must address the broader political and social context in which they operate. The recent events in the US underscore the need for a more integrated approach to security that considers both technological and political factors.

References:

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/06/citizen-lab-director-warns-cyber-industry-about-us-authoritarian-descent/
[2] https://jacobin.com/2025/08/big-tech-justice-department-trump