Biden prohibits the US government’s use of harmful commercial spyware
In light of the disputed Pegasus program’s use for political repression in various nations throughout the world, US President Joe Biden signed a prohibition on government use of commercial spyware technology on Monday.
Commercial malware, according to the White House, has been discovered on the phones of 50 US officials abroad, posing a clear intelligence danger to the country.
The use of commercial spyware to target civilians without the required legal licence, safeguards, or oversight has been revealed to have occurred within democratic governments as well.
The order issued by Biden did not completely outlaw commercial spyware, but it did apply to any product that the US government regarded as a security danger or that other governments were using for improper political purposes. Moreover, the National Security Agency, the top organisation for electronic intelligence, and other US government organisations like the CIA were free to manufacture spyware without restriction.
A top Biden administration official said that the most dangerous spyware is capable of remotely controlling and scraping all data from targeted devices.
After several instances of privately built surveillance software being used for political reasons in a number of international locations, the government issued a warning last year that it planned to impose strong controls on its usage.
Although no specific names were mentioned in the declaration made on Monday, the US government has already taken steps to stop the usage of many companies and programmes that it deems to be dangerous.
The Russian company Positive Technologies, the Israeli companies NRO Group and Candiru, the Singaporean company Computer Security Initiative Consultancy, and the Israeli company NRO Group were all added to the Commerce Department’s blacklist in November.
The NRO Group’s Pegasus system was used by governments and other organisations in Mexico, Spain, Poland, Bahrain, India, Hungary, and other countries.
The three-day Summit for Democracy, to which leaders from 121 nations have been invited, will be held one day after the ban was made public. A “cornerstone” summit initiative, according to the White House, was the ban on commercial spyware.
The decree “illustrates the United States’ expertise in and commitment to promoting technology for democracy,” according to the statement.
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