More Countries Commit to Enforce Spyware Tech Export Controls
Austria, Estonia, Lithuania and the Netherlands on Sept. 22 signed onto a statement committing to place export controls around spyware technology, joining the U.S. and more than 15 other countries as part of an effort to raise trade guardrails for cyber-related items used for human rights violations.
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The countries agreed to prevent “the export of software, technology, and equipment to end-users who are likely to use them for malicious cyber activity, including unauthorized intrusion into information systems, in accordance with our respective legal, regulatory, and policy approaches and appropriate existing export control regimes,” according to a joint statement. The State Department said this “growing coalition of nations” will look to “increase the difficulty of seeking refuge in jurisdictions with lax export policies, or obfuscating money flows and financial transactions.”
The statement was first issued and signed by 11 countries in 2023 during the Biden administration’s second annual Summit for Democracy (see 2303300054) before more nations joined in March (see 2403180030). The four newest countries signed on to the commitment ahead of a meeting on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, the State Department said.