Chasing Shadows - by Ronald J Deibert (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Instant Bestseller

Like a John Le Carré novel updated for the digital age, Chasing Shadows provides a gripping account of how the Citizen Lab, the world's foremost digital watchdog, has uncovered dozens of cyber espionage cases and protects people in countries around the world. Called "essential reading" by Margaret Atwood, it's a chilling reminder of the invisible invasions happening on smartphones and computers around the world.

In this real-life spy thriller, cyber security expert Ronald Deibert details the unseemly marketplace for high-tech surveillance, professional disinformation, and computerized malfeasance. He reveals how his team of digital sleuths at the Citizen Lab have lifted the lid on dozens of covert operations targeting innocent citizens everywhere.

Chasing Shadows provides a front-row seat to a dark underworld of digital espionage, disinformation, and subversion. There, autocrats and dictators peer into their targets' lives with the mere press of a button, spreading their tentacles of authoritarianism through a digital ecosystem that is insecure, poorly regulated, and prone to abuse. The activists, opposition figures, and journalists who dare to advocate for basic political rights and freedoms are hounded, arrested, tortured, and sometimes murdered.

From the gritty streets of Guatemala City to the corridors of power in the White House, this compelling narrative traces the journey of the Citizen Lab as it evolved into a globally renowned source of counterintelligence for civil society. As this small team of investigators disarmed cyber mercenaries and helped to improve the digital security of billions of people worldwide, their success brought them, too, into the same sinister crosshairs that plagued the victims they worked to protect.

Deibert recounts how the Lab exposed the world's pre-eminent cyber-mercenary firm, Israel-based NSO Group--the creators of the phone-hacking marvel Pegasus--in a series of human rights abuses, from domestic spying scandals in Spain, Poland, Hungary, and Greece to its implication in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

Review Quotes

Praise for Ronald J. Deibert

"Chasing Shadows reads like a thriller and shines light in the dark places of hacking, intimidation, and espionage. In this spectacular book by one of the world's most brave, ethical, and skilled researchers, Ron Deibert writes with authority but without ego and unveils his journey through the invisible world of spyware and spy craft in the most engaging way."
-- MARIETJE SCHAAKE, author of The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley

"[Chasing Shadows] will chill the blood of any journalist, human rights worker, or civil society activist. Or, come to think of it, any ordinary citizen who believes that criticizing your own government does not merit extra-judicial execution, and that private communications should remain private. . . an utterly gripping, petrifying read."
-- The Spectator

"A thrilling, terrifying, and, above all, true story of the shadowy industry that makes billions by exploiting defects in our most intimate, powerful devices, abetted by powerful autocrats and so-called democracies all around the world. Don't let this give you nightmares: rather, let it inspire you to demand action!"
-- CORY DOCTOROW, author of Little Brother, The Internet Con, and Red Team Blues

"Canada should be hugely proud of Ron Deibert and his outrageously smart team at Citizen Lab. The rest of the world should just be thankful--except, that is, the dictators, oligarchs, criminals, thugs, and those allegedly democratic governments that use the most intrusive spyware to snoop on, intimidate, troll, and even murder their opponents. Part memoir, part thriller, and part manifesto of hope, Chasing Shadows details how a small group of people committed to the truth has taken on the world's most powerful and unscrupulous forces. My book of the year--Read it!"
-- MISHA GLENNY, multi-award-winning author of McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld and DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You

"Deibert has built a formidable team that functions as a kind of National Security Agency for civil society."
-- The Guardian

"Essential reading for all those interested in the digiverse, especially its underbelly!"
-- @MargaretAtwood on X

"For almost a quarter of a century, Ron Deibert and his Citizen Lab team have been in the vanguard of the global struggle to protect the public internet from the schemes of criminals, autocrats, and spies. Deibert's new account of the battle to expose and combat the powerful Pegasus spyware sold by the Israeli firm NSO reads like a cloak-and-dagger spy novel, complete with high drama and a rogue's gallery of villains. Essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of the internet and the fate of freedom."
-- DANIEL DEUDNEY, award-winning author of Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity

"No one has done more than Ron Deibert and his Lab to expose the enemies of the internet--shadowy companies whose sole business is to make it unsafe for all of us. No one is better placed to explain the intersection of law and technology that makes these abuses possible--and how we can put an end to them."
-- EDWARD SNOWDEN

"With the pacing of a John le Carré thriller, the rigor of world-class journalism, and the seriousness of breakthrough science, Ron Deibert tells a little-known story that every citizen of the modern world needs to know about."
-- JOHN PALFREY, President, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

About the Author

Ronald J. Deibert is the founder and director of the Citizen Lab, a world-renowned digital security research center at the University of Toronto. The bestselling author of Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society and Black Code: Surveillance, Privacy, and the Dark Side of the Internet, he has also written many landmark articles and reports on espionage operations that infiltrated government and NGO computer networks. His team's exposés of the spyware that attacks journalists and anti-corruption advocates around the world have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, and other media. Deibert has received multiple honors for his cutting-edge work, and in 2022 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada--the country's second-highest honor of merit.