(Washington) US President Joe Biden has issued an executive order banning the use of malicious private spyware by all US government branches and agencies, the White House announced on Monday.
The text prohibits software that poses “significant risks” of security for the United States, or “significant risks” of diversion by a foreign government for the purpose of violating human rights, according to a statement from the House -White.
Spyware is sophisticated surveillance tools that allow remote access to electronic devices, especially smart phones, without the knowledge of their users.
They make it possible to consult the activity and the contents of electronic devices, and even to alter their operation.
“The proliferation of private spyware poses a specific and growing risk” to the United States, particularly to “the safety of U.S. officials and their families,” the executive said.
“A growing number of foreign governments around the world have used this technology for repression”, “intimidation” and surveillance, against “political opponents”, “activists and journalists”, notes the White House .
This decree of the American president is part of the second “summit for democracy”, a largely virtual event organized at the initiative of the United States, which opens on Tuesday and which will take place over three days.
The subject of private spyware has come to the fore in particular following the cascading revelations around the Pegasus software, exported by the Israeli company NSO.
In July 2021, a coordinated multi-media investigation uncovered a list of over 50,000 names of individuals who may have been monitored through Pegasus.
These allegations have triggered scandals and sometimes legal proceedings in several countries, including the creation of a special commission of inquiry in the European Parliament.
In the United States, the FBI had admitted to the Guardian that it had acquired a “limited license” to “test” Pegasus. The American federal police assured that they had never used this tool in investigations, and that they wanted above all to understand how it works.
