Why an Arms Control Pact Has Security Experts Up in Arms

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.wired.com/2015/06/arms-control-pact-security-experts-arms/

By Kim Zetter
Security
Wired.com
June 24, 2015

SECURITY RESEARCHERS SAY a proposed set of export rules meant to restrict 
the sale of surveillance software to repressive regimes are so broadly 
written that they could criminalize some research and restrict legitimate 
tools that professionals need to make software and computer systems more 
secure.

Critics liken the software rules, put forth by the US Commerce Department, 
to the Crypto Wars of the late ’90s, when export controls imposed against 
strong encryption software prevented cryptographers and mathematicians 
from effectively sharing their research abroad.

At issue is the so-called Wassenaar Arrangement, an international 
agreement on which the proposed US rules are based. Other countries are in 
the process of developing their own rules around the WA, potentially 
putting researchers overseas in the same troubled boat as ones in the US.

To clarify why people are alarmed about the WA and the proposed US rules, 
we’ve compiled a primer on what they are and why they could harm not only 
researchers and security companies but the state of computer security 
itself.

[...]

--
Evident.io - Continuous Cloud Security for AWS.
Identify and mitigate risks in 5 minutes or less.
Sign up for a free trial @ https://evident.io/