Some big names in the IT industry have announced a set of new principles that they hope will help thwart the threat of “cybermercenaries.”
The Cybersecurity Tech Accord, an industry association, uses the term to describe a growing number of companies dedicated to developing and selling offensive cyber capabilities, primarily aimed at government customers.
Citing a report that claims the market for these services has grown to at least $12 billion in recent years, the group believes these companies are undermining democratic values and making the digital world less secure. claimed to be.
This is because they often sell their services to despotic governments who use them to spy on journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, and more.
Read more about cyber mercenaries: US moves to ban ‘anti-democratic’ spyware.
In 2021, Meta claimed to have enabled a cyber-mercenary firm to target as many as 50,000 people across its platform. Several criminals were featured, including Cobwebs Technologies, Cognyte, Black Cube, and Cytrox.
“The momentum of companies offering digital weapons for rent is undiminished,” said Tom Burt, Microsoft CVP responsible for customer security and trust.
“Given all the risks, there is no reason why this kind of business model should be acceptable.”
The five principles of the Cybersecurity Tech Accord are:
- Take steps to combat the use of products and services by cyber mercenaries to harm people
- Identify ways to aggressively counter the cyber mercenary market
- Invest in public cybersecurity awareness
- Protect you by maintaining the integrity and security of our products and services
- Develop a process for handling valid legal requests for information
These efforts came this week when a new executive order effectively banned the use of commercial spyware by the U.S. government if it was previously exploited by tyranny and/or poses a counterintelligence or security risk to the United States. was backed by
Among the signatories to the new principles are Microsoft, Google, Trend Micro, and Cisco.
