The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced that it will ban the export of hacking tools to authoritarian governments in an effort to curb violations of human rights and other malicious cyber activities.
The rule, first reported by The Washington Post and later confirmed by the Commerce Department, will effectively ban the export or resale of hacking software and equipment to China, Russia, and other countries of concern for national security reasons, without a license from the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).
The move comes after the Biden administration in March restricted the export of U.S. technologies — including advanced semiconductors and software that uses encryption for information security — to China and Russia as it continues to take a hard-line national security approach towards the two countries.
The latest sanctions are due to go into effect in 90 days and will cover software such as Pegasus, spyware developed by Israeli firm NSO Group that several authoritarian governments have used to hack into the phones of their most vocal critics, including journalists, a …
