May 20, 2015
The U.S. Commerce Department has proposed tighter export rules for computer security tools, a potentially controversial revision to an international agreement aimed at controlling weapons technology.
On Wednesday, the department published a proposal in the Federal Register and opened a two-month comment period. The changes are proposed to the Wassenaar Arrangement, an international agreement reached in 1995, aimed at limiting the spread of “dual use” technologies that could be used for harm.
Forty-one countries participate in the Wassenaar Arrangement, and lists of controlled items are revised annually.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is proposing requiring a license in order to export certain cybersecurity tools used for penetrating systems and analyzing network communications.