In the future, no federal agency will be allowed to use spyware. The decision may also affect the Israeli NSO Group, which is infamous for the Pegasus scandal.

In an executive order signed Monday, US President Joe Biden banned federal agencies from using commercially available spyware that threatens US national security or could be misused by foreign governments and other buyers. The regulation applies to all agencies, including law enforcement and intelligence.

The order published by the Biden administration does not include the list of manufacturers that will now be banned. the Techcrunch According to his report, the government refused to name any factory, but said the list includes manufacturers from the United States and other countries. Accordingly, the Macedonian Cytrox or the Israeli NSO group, famous for the Pegasus scandal, may be affected.

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As the paper points out, security experts have long warned about the dangers of this spyware. The program exploits a vulnerability in the system running on the devices to infect the mobile phone without the victim’s knowledge. Although the authorities say that such software is only used to monitor criminals, this does not mean that it is used to monitor journalists, politicians, and civic activists.

According to a White House official, the rise of digital authoritarianism in the world is alarming, so the United States will strive to ensure that the use of technology is in line with basic human rights and democratic principles.

The Biden administration announced on Monday that there have been at least 50 US government employees in 10 countries whose computers have been infected with spyware. The last time, for example, Pegasus software was used to infect the iPhones of nine foreign affairs representatives who were in Uganda.

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