As the commercial spyware market explodes, the security industry and the U.S. government alike are exploring a number of ways to curb the sale and usage of surveillance tools.However, they face an array of challenges. Though spyware tools violate privacy and human rights, they are used widely by law enforcement, intelligence and government agencies even reportedly by the U.S. government itself - and it’s difficult to contain something at such a global scale.
At this point there are also more and more companies offering up spyware tools and capabilities. Privacy experts describe a “whack-a-mole” situation where, even if one company is blacklisted, sued or otherwise, there are numerous others with the same offerings. In its latest move against spyware on Tuesday, the U.S. government added two entities - Intellexa and Cytrox - to the
Department of Commerce’s export control list “for trafficking in cyber exploits used to gain access to information systems, thereby threatening the privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide.”
