david thiel

David Thiel

  • Chief Technologist, Stanford Internet Observatory
  • Big Data Architect

Biography

David is the Big Data Architect and Chief Technologist of the Stanford Internet Observatory. Prior to Stanford, David worked at Facebook, primarily focusing on security and safety for Facebook Connectivity, a collection of projects aimed at providing faster and less expensive internet connectivity to unconnected or underconnected communities. Projects included the Terragraph mesh networking system, the Magma open source mobile network platform, Express Wi-Fi and Facebook Lite.

Before Facebook, David was a VP at iSEC Partners and later NCC Group, managing the North American security consulting and research team, as well as producing original security research, coordinating vulnerability disclosure and performing security assessments and penetration testing for companies across a wide range of business sectors.

David has spoken at various industry conferences, including Black Hat, DEFCON, PacSec and SOURCE Boston. He is also the author of iOS Application Security (No Starch Press) and coauthor of Mobile Application Security (McGraw-Hill).

publications

Case Studies
August 2022

Mind Farce: An Investigation into an Inauthentic Facebook and Instagram Network Linked to an Israeli Public Relations Firm (TAKEDOWN)

Author(s)
Mind Farce: An Investigation into an Inauthentic Facebook and Instagram Network Linked to an Israeli Public Relations Firm (TAKEDOWN)
Reports
June 2022

Gabufacturing Dissent: An in-depth analysis of Gab

Author(s)
Gabufacturing Dissent: An in-depth analysis of Gab
Case Studies
December 2021

Maduro’s Menagerie: Twitter Client Usage in a Venezuelan Twitter Operation (TAKEDOWN)

Author(s)
Maduro’s Menagerie: Twitter Client Usage in a Venezuelan Twitter Operation (TAKEDOWN)

In The News

Arrows pointing toward Middle Eastern and Asian countries
Blogs

Unheard Voice

Stanford Internet Observatory collaborated with Graphika to analyze a large network of accounts removed from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in our latest report. This information operation likely originated in the United States and targeted a range of countries in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Unheard Voice
A graphic depiction of a face falling towards the ground on a red background overlayed with a black satellite dish and the word "takedown".
Blogs

Mind Farce

An Investigation into an Inauthentic Facebook and Instagram Network Linked to an Israeli Public Relations Firm
Mind Farce
image of a bowl of cartoon frogs with the word Gab on the front
Blogs

New report analyzes dynamics on alt-platform Gab

Gab was founded in 2016 as an uncensored alternative to mainstream social media platforms. Stanford Internet Observatory’s latest report looks at behaviors and dynamics across the platform.
New report analyzes dynamics on alt-platform Gab
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