US to roll out visa restrictions on people who misuse spyware to target journalists, activists
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Monday that it will roll out a new policy that will allow it to impose visa restrictions on foreign individuals involved in the misuse of commercial spyware.
The government’s policy will apply to people who have been involved in the misuse of commercial spyware to target individuals, including journalists, activists, suspected dissidents, members of marginalized communities or the family members of those targeted. The visa restrictions could also apply to people who facilitate or financially benefit from the abuse of commercial spyware, officials said.
“The United States remains concerned about the increasing misuse of commercial spyware around the world to facilitate repression, restrict the free flow of information, and enable human rights abuses,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement announcing the new announced policy. “The misuse of commercial spyware threatens privacy and freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. Such targeting has, in the most egregious cases, been linked to arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.”
Biden issued an executive order nearly a year ago restricting the U.S. government’s use of commercial spyware “that poses national security risks.”
That order required the head of any U.S. agency that used commercial programs to certify that they do not pose a significant counterintelligence or other security risk, a senior administration official said. It was issued after the White House acknowledged a wave of hacks of U.S. government employees in 10 countries who had been compromised or targeted by commercial spyware.
A senior administration official who briefed reporters ahead of Monday’s announcement would not say whether certain individuals would be eligible to be immediately affected by the visa restrictions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under basic White House rules.
Officials said the visa restriction policy could apply to citizens of any country that has abused or facilitated the malicious use of spyware, even if they come from countries whose citizens are allowed entry into the U.S. without first applying for a visa.
Perhaps the best-known example of spyware, Israel’s NSO Group’s Pegasus software, was used to target more than 1,000 people in 50 countries, according to security researchers and a July 2021 global media investigation that listed more than 50,000 mobile phone numbers was cited.
The US has already imposed export restrictions on NSO Group, limiting the company’s access to US components and technology.
Pegasus spyware was used in Jordan to hack the mobile phones of at least 30 people, including journalists, lawyers, human rights and political activists, according to digital rights group Access Now.
According to Access Now, the hacking using spyware created by Israel’s NSO Group took place from 2019 until last September. It did not accuse the Jordanian government of the hacking.
Amnesty International also reported that its forensic investigators found that Pegasus spyware was installed on the phone of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, just four days after he was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. involved in other espionage activities against Khashoggi.
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Associated Press Frank Bajak in Boston reported.