The United States announced yesterday (5th) that the United States will restrict the issuance of visas to those who use spyware to conduct eavesdropping and information theft attacks on journalists and civil rights activists.
The Washington Post, Reuters, The Guardian and other newspapers reported that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced the decision yesterday. This policy allows subordinate departments to restrict the issuance of visas to individuals involved in the improper use of commercial espionage.
This is the latest U.S. initiative to curb the misuse of commercial spyware. The statement noted that the United States is concerned about the misuse of spyware to enforce oppression, restrict the free flow of information, and human rights, and that commercial spyware threatens people's privacy, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and communication, as well as a threat to the security of American citizens. The United States** reiterates its commitment to continue to ensure that those involved in the use of commercial spyware are held accountable.
Prior to this, Biden issued an executive order in March last year, prohibiting the United States from using commercial espionage software to collect information from journalists, politicians, non-organizations, and minority people. Biden has also joined 36 other countries in releasing guidelines for surveillance technology (called the Freedom Online Coalition) to reduce the impact of spyware on human rights.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Commerce published an Entity List in July last year, prohibiting four European developers involved in hacking journalists, human rights activists or mobile phones with commercial spyware. In 2021, the Ministry of Commerce has banned two companies, NSO and Candiru, from Israel, from developing Pegasus and Devilstongu respectively. Among them, Pegasus is a spyware that has caused great diplomatic controversy in recent years, and has been used to spy on Catalonia**, the Spanish Prime Minister, Yemen**, the British Prime Minister's Office and the United States***, and has also infected the iPhones of journalists from Al Jazeera, France and other countries.