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US Proposes Tighter Export Rules For Computer Security Tools

Posted by timothy on from the we'd-like-to-inspect-that-package dept.

itwbennett writes: The U.S. Commerce Department has proposed tighter export rules for computer security tools and could prohibit the export of penetration testing tools without a license. The proposal would modify rules added to the Wassenaar Arrangement in 2013 that limit the export of technologies related to intrusion and traffic inspection. The definition of intrusion software would also encompass 'proprietary research on the vulnerabilities and exploitation of computers and network-capable devices,' the proposal said.

2 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. And Of Course... by BlueStrat · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...What they mean by "export" is posting downloads or links to downloads of source code or binaries on the 'net.

    Just another restriction on the communication of knowledge & free speech in the "Land of the Free".

    The US I grew up in during the 1960s/'70s is dead.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  2. Re:better open source the tools by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

    and publish them well away from USoA soil.

    This is what happened with the encryption ban in the 1990s. Companies did their development outside America, using non-Americans. The result was job losses for Americans, atrophy of American skills, and no increase in security. That was predictable, and continued long after the stupidity of the policy was blatantly obvious. But it really takes a special kind of idiocy to do it all over again.