Wassenaar Arrangement ‘inhibits international cyber-security efforts’

The Wassenaar Arrangement controlling the sale of technology and software which could be used as weapons is threatening the choke the cyber-security industry, according to a consortium of cyber-security companies.

The Coalition for Responsible Cybersecurity, supported by Microsoft among others, agrees with the principle of Wassenaar but believes that when it comes to cyber-security it “misses the mark”.

“Because the regulation is so overly broad, it would require cyber responders and security researchers to obtain an export license prior to exchanging essential information to remediate a newly identified network vulnerability, even when that vulnerability is capable of being exploited for purposes of surveillance,” wrote Alan Cohn from the CRC on a Microsoft blog.

This view was reinforced by Microsoft assistant general counsel Cristin Goodwin who was speaking at the RSA Asia Pacific Security conference in Singapore. She said, in its current form, Wassenaar would force Microsoft to apply for 3800 arms export licenses in a year. For the full article click here 

from cyber security caucus http://ift.tt/29We1he
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