Category Archives: Wassenaar Arrangement

Proposed State Department bureau takes wrong approach to U.S. cyber diplomacy

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This week the State Department formally notified Congress of its long overdue plan to establish a new Bureau for Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies. This news, which was expected for almost a year, should in theory be welcomed by lawmakers. In 2018, the Republican-controlled House grew so frustrated with former Secretary Rex Tillerson’s plan to abolish the State Department’s cybersecurity coordinator – the country’s top cyber diplomat – that it passed legislation to not just reconstitute the position but actually elevate its stature and responsibilities. This rare rebuke of the administration by the president’s own party could have been rectified by Tillerson’s successor, Mike Pompeo. Instead, the department’s latest plan may be worse than Tillerson’s. There are two fundamental and related problems with the department’s proposed cyber bureau. First, the bureau’s focus is far too narrow. By limiting the scope of the bureau’s purview to security – and excluding the digital economy, […]

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The Wassenaar Arrangement’s latest language is making security researchers very happy

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Security researchers are saying rewritten language that includes hacking tools in a treaty that regulates the global trade in weapons technology, saying it fixes rules that, if implemented in the U.S., would have outlawed much of the daily commerce of the cybersecurity industry. The recent agreement, reached at the annual plenary session of the Wassenaar Arrangement — a 42-nation arms control treaty to which the U.S. is a signatory — was broadly welcomed by policy makers, industry sources and security researchers. “We applaud the hard work of the U.S. interagency and our partners in industry, the research community, and foreign governments to clarify software and technology controls that could have had a negative impact on legitimate cybersecurity,”  Rob Joyce, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator, told CyberScoop. The changes provide exemptions to the export control requirements the treaty imposes on hacking tools. Cyber defenders and white hat security researchers engaged in vulnerability disclosure and […]

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Katie Moussouris on Bug Bounty Programs, Hack the Army, and Wassenaar

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Katie Moussouris on how bug bounty programs have gone mainstream, the success of Hack the Pentagon and Hack the Army, and where things stand with the Wassenaar Arrangement. Continue reading Katie Moussouris on Bug Bounty Programs, Hack the Army, and Wassenaar→

Wassenaar Renegotiation Will Be in Trump Administration’s Hands

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Now that a proposed revision to the Wassenaar Arrangement has been rejected, it will be up to the Trump administration to decide whether to attempt to renegotiate again. Continue reading Wassenaar Renegotiation Will Be in Trump Administration’s Hands→

DoD Publishes Vulnerability Disclosure Policy

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In the wake of the Pentagon and Army bug bounties, the government continues to engage researchers with the publication of the DoD’s vulnerability disclosure program. Continue reading DoD Publishes Vulnerability Disclosure Policy→

Hacking Team loses global license to sell spyware

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The Italian government revoked Hacking Team’s global license to sell its spyware to some governments with poor human rights records. Continue reading Hacking Team loses global license to sell spyware→

White House Wants to Renegotiate U.S. Implementation of Wassenaar

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The White House wants to renegotiate the divisive U.S. implementation of the Wassenaar Arrangement rules as they relate to intrusion software. Continue reading White House Wants to Renegotiate U.S. Implementation of Wassenaar→