Governments are calling for espionage legislation at the UN Security Council

Tuesday, The United Nations Security Council held a meeting discussing the dangers of commercial espionage software, which is the first time this kind of software – also known as a government spy or mercenary – discussed at the Security Council.

The purpose of the conference, according to the US Mission to the UNwas to “eliminate the effects of the proliferation and misuse of commercial espionage programs for the maintenance of international peace and security.” The United States and 15 other countries called the meeting.

Although the meeting was informal and did not end with a formal resolution, many of the countries involved, including France, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, agreed that governments should take action to prevent the proliferation and exploitation of commercial espionage programs. On the other hand, Russia and China rejected this concern.

John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, a human rights organization that has investigated spying abuses since 2012, testified that he warned of the spread of spying software created by “a secret global ecosystem of developers, advertisers, middle-class companies, and traders,” which are “undermining international peace and security and human rights.”

Scott-Railton called Europe “the cradle of espionage” and a breeding ground for the espionage industry, referring to a recent TechCrunch study that showed Barcelona has become the center of the spy industry in the last few years.

Representatives of Poland and Greece, countries that had espionage scandals involving software developed by The NSO team and Intellexa therefore, he also intervened.

Representative of Poland he pointed to local law enforcement efforts placing “more authority, including the judiciary, over the operations of the security and intelligence services,” and recognizing that spying programs can be used legally. “We are not saying that the use of spyware is not necessary or desirable,” said the Polish representative.

And the Greek representative he pointed to the country’s 2022 bill to ban the sale of spyware.

Russia, on the other hand, opposed the United States. A Russian representative, that is old NSA spying revelations The US historian Edward Snowden, said, “it is the United States in particular that has created a reliable system of surveillance around the world and interferes with the private life of its citizens, and citizens of other countries, and continues to improve this system.”

China’s representative criticized the meeting, saying that discussing “so-called commercial espionage programs and maintaining international peace and security is putting the cart before the horse compared to what governments are doing more and more.”

“Since the Stuxnet incident, the proliferation of high-tech tools in the world has led to serious cyber threats, which are more harmful than commercial espionage software,” said the Chinese representative, referring to the Stuxnet malware that was created. as part of the US-Israeli project aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons.

During the Biden administration, the US government has taken several actions against commercial espionage programs, including approval of Israeli spyware developers NSO Group and Candiruand in Greece Intellexa and its founder Tal Dilian; and encourage travel restrictions on people involved in espionage.
Last year, people who work or have worked in the spy industry told TechCrunch expressed concern that sanctions and other disciplinary measures would affect them.