Rnegotiate on Export of Cybersecurity Products

Obama administration’s decision to renegotiate an international pact that limits the export of cybersecurity products. The reversal follows months of pressure from the technology community and lawmakers who warned the vague definitions within the agreement would restrict companies’ ability to use legitimate tools to test and fortify their own defences. Harley Geiger, director of public policy at Rapid7 have the following comments on it.

Harley Geiger, Director of Public Policy at Rapid7:

“It’s very positive news that the Administration intends to renegotiate the Wassenaar Arrangement export controls on cybersecurity tools. As written, the Arrangement would hinder routine cybersecurity activities and harm beneficial security research, and these problems could not be properly addressed through domestic rules alone because cybersecurity is a global endeavour that involves information sharing across borders. We hope that revisions to the Wassenaar cybersecurity controls are comprehensive and address not just the definition of “technology”, but also the definition of “intrusion software” and the restrictions on systems and software that interact with “intrusion software.” These controls are overbroad and would undermine cybersecurity.”

[su_box title=”About Rapid7″ style=”noise” box_color=”#336588″]Rapid7 security data and analytics software and services help organizations reduce the risk of a breach, detect and investigate attacks, and build effective IT security programs. With comprehensive real-time data collection, advanced correlation, and insight into attacker techniques, Rapid7 strengthens an organization’s ability to defend against everything from opportunistic drive-by attacks to advanced threats. Unlike traditional vulnerability management and incident detection technologies, Rapid7 provides visibility, monitoring, and insight across assets and users from the endpoint to the cloud. Dedicated to solving the toughest security challenges, Rapid7 offers proprietary capabilities to spot intruders leveraging today’s #1 attack vector: compromised credentials. Rapid7 is trusted by more than 3,700 organizations across 90 countries, including 30% of the Fortune 1000.[/su_box]