Spyware and cyber companies added to BIS Entity List
The US Bureau of Industry and Security, BIS has published a final rule adding four foreign companies to its Entity List for ‘engaging in activities that are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.’ The four entities are headquartered in Israel, Russia, and Singapore.
BIS said: ‘NSO Group and Candiru (Israel) were added to the Entity List based on evidence that these entities developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers. These tools have also enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression, which is the practice of authoritarian governments targeting dissidents, journalists and activists outside of their sovereign borders to silence dissent. Such practices threaten the rules-based international order.
‘Positive Technologies (Russia), and Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE. LTD. (Singapore) were added to the Entity List based on a determination that they traffic in cyber tools used to gain unauthorized access to information systems, threatening the privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide.’
US Secretary of Commerce, Gina M. Raimondo said, ‘The United States is committed to aggressively using export controls to hold companies accountable that develop, traffic, or use technologies to conduct malicious activities that threaten the cybersecurity of members of civil society, dissidents, government officials, and organizations here and abroad.’
