U.S. Government Bans Sale of Hacking Tools to Authoritarian Regimes
Oct 21, 2021
The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday announced new rules barring the sales of hacking software and equipment to authoritarian regimes and potentially facilitate human rights abuse for national security (NS) and anti-terrorism (AT) reasons. The mandate , which is set to go into effect in 90 days, will forbid the export, reexport and transfer of "cybersecurity items" to countries of "national security or weapons of mass destruction concern" such as China and Russia without a license from the department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). "The United States Government opposes the misuse of technology to abuse human rights or conduct other malicious cyber activities, and these new rules will help ensure that U.S. companies are not fueling authoritarian practices," BIS said in a press release. The rule does not cover "intrusion software" itself, but rather the following — Systems, equipment, and components specially designed or...
