A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers as well as the Coalition for Responsible Cybersecurity and BSA/The Software Alliance are urging the Trump Administration to renegotiate provisions of the Wassenaar Arrangement that threaten to undermine U.S. cybersecurity.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Reps. Jim Langevin (D-RI), Michael McCaul (R-TX), John Ratcliffe (R-TX), Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and Will Hurd (R-TX) sent letters to National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, expressing concerns about intrusion software provisions in the Wassenaar Arrangement, a 41-country international export control agreement.
“Our concern relates to the 2013 addition of ‘intrusion software’ provisions to the Arrangement’s list of dual-use goods and technologies that are subject to export control. Having examined this issue the past two years, including in a joint hearing of the House Committees on Homeland Security and Oversight and Government Reform, we have determined these provisions are not in the best interests of the United States. They are defective and must be renegotiated,” the lawmakers said.
The intrusion software provisions would subject defensive technologies to onerous licensing requirements and grind cybersecurity activity to a halt, they said. These concerns are also shared by Coalition for Responsible Cybersecurity and BSA/The Software Alliance, an association comprised of the world’s leading software companies.
The Coalition and BSA urge the Trump Administration to negotiate changes to the controls on “intrusion software, including revising the too broad definition of “intrusion software,” limiting the controls on related software, hardware, technology, and information sharing.
The associations urge the administration to engage with industry, academia, and researches in crafting changes to the controls on “intrusion software” and work to correct this defect in the Wassenaar Arrangement.