US rolls out visa restriction policy on people who abuse spyware to target journalists, activists
Associated PressWASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Monday it is rolling out a new policy that will allow it to impose visa restrictions on foreign individuals involved in the misuse of commercial spyware. Such targeting has been linked to arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings in the most egregious of cases.” Biden issued a executive order nearly a year ago restricting the U.S. government’s use of commercial spyware “that poses risks to national security.” That order required the head of any U.S. agency using commercial programs to certify that they don’t pose a significant counterintelligence or other security risk, a senior administration official said. It was issued as the White House acknowledged a surge in hacks of U.S. government employees, across 10 countries, who had been compromised or targeted by commercial spyware — and after the Biden administration effectively blacklisted its most prolific purveyor, Israel’s NSO Group. Other countries should follow the U.S. lead.” Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton said the U.S. government, through its multi-pronged punitive strategy, “is constructing a model for the regulation of this industry.” And that should hopefully, he said, chill investment in the mercenary spyware industry — which has come from countries including the U.S. and U.K. Regulation of the industry in Europe lags behind the U.S., a stark contrast in light of its more rigorous regulation of Big Tech.