US to rethink hacker tool export rules after mass freakout in security land

Proposed changes to the US government's export controls on hacking tools will likely be scaled back following widespread criticism from the infosec community, a government spokesman has said. "A second iteration of this regulation will be promulgated," a spokesman for the US Department of Commerce told Reuters, "and you can …

[Ole Juul]

The pen is mightier than the sword.

"items that have both civilian and military applications."

There goes MS Word.

[asdf]

Re: The pen is mightier than the sword.

GPS too.

[Eddy Ito]

Re: The pen is mightier than the sword.

Don't forget things like telephones, radios or any other sort of comms gear. Trucks (troop transports), any sort of security alarm (intelligence), "bullet proof" windows (perspex/plexiglas), caster oil as a precursor to ricin, hell nearly anything the political monkeys choose. The whole ball of wax is just an oppressive thumb waiting to be pressed down.

Yeah, the tin foil hat is glowing again but we all know it's a matter of when, not if.

[tfewster]

Re: The pen is mightier than the sword.

I believe the military and terrorists use water as well! (I hear that MRE can't be classed as "food").

Yes, I know that the Wassenaar Arrangement is quite specific about what are "sensitive" dual-use items.

[Adam 1]

Re: The pen is mightier than the sword.

Tin foil? Like those military/citizen blankets for treating people for hypothermia?

[Mark 85]

Re: The pen is mightier than the sword.

I would think that just about any OS would have been affected.....

[channel extended]

Re: The pen is mightier than the sword.

Will this finally kill PowerPoint?

[dave-p]

Well done for at least taking into account the concerns of the infosec community. But let's wait for the 2nd draft before applauding too much.

[Doctor Syntax]

At least there's one gummint dept on the planet that's capable of hearing when being told they're wrong. Now let's hope they go back to whoever cooked up the original, gives them a good kicking and asks them WTF they were thinking of in the first place.

[Christoph]

Don't worry, they will amend it so that security companies can still use these tools.

Only registered, regulated, licensed security companies of course.

Part of the regulation being that their tools will not detect any malware containing the string "© NSA".

[cortland]

EVERYTHING has "dual use"

Psychology, say, or management courses, and and just about any electronics; if arrays of PlayStations® can be turned into supercomputers, NOTHING can be exported.

[amanfromMars 1]

In AI and ITs CyberIntelAIgent Space Place, Nothing Heeds or Needs to Read Fools' Codes..

Do smart folk listen to governmentspeak and abide by their self serving rules and self servicing regulations ...... which are increasingly sounding ever more like desperate wishes? Or is most everything practically recognised and virtually parsed by them, giving everything all due relevant care and relative attention, as confused garbage in for confused garbage out, and therefore of no real importance to the march of progress into the future ...... which is never at all like the past and the present, no matter how much the status quo would like it be and remain so?

Is that the unfolding problem ..... the pumped narrative for media propagation and politically inept spin is not matching the reality on the ground and in peoples' lives?