The Bureau of Industry and Security will add four companies in Israel, Russia and Singapore to the entity list for "malicious cyber activities" contrary to U.S. foreign policy and national security, BIS said; see also a State Department announcement. The two Israeli companies that include NSO Group supply malicious spyware to foreign governments, and the companies in Russia and Singapore “traffic in cyber exploits” that threaten the “privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide.” BIS' parent agency the Commerce Department said these additions -- which take effect Thursday, when they're to be published in the Federal Register -- reflect a government-wide effort to "stem the proliferation of digital tools used for repression." Adding NSO and others is "long overdue," Access Now said. It said the EU and other governments "should implement similar restrictions on surveillance tech companies who facilitate human rights violations. The privacy advocacy group wants the U.S. government to sanction owners and affiliates of NSO Group and Candiru, another company that's being added to the BIS list. NSO "is dismayed by" BIS' decision because "our technologies support US national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime," emailed a company spokesperson. "We will advocate for this decision to be reversed.”
Russia export controls and sanctions
The use of export controls and sanctions on Russia has surged since the country's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and especially its invasion of Ukraine in in February 2022. Similar export controls and sanctions have been imposed by U.S. allies, including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The following is a listing of recent articles in Export Compliance Daily on export controls and sanctions imposed on Russia:
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is looking to advance the discussion on a measure that would prohibit online platforms from self-preferencing their own products (see 2110140068). He told us he’s in discussions with ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., about a legislative hearing for the American Innovation and Choice Online Act. “I’m discussing it with both of them,” said Durbin. “We haven’t made a final decision.”
Global digital technology rules should be compatible, not identical, speakers said at a Thursday Politico virtual event. There's discussion about the new Trade & Technical Council (TTC) (see 2109290006) because, in an interconnected world, what's relevant in one country becomes relevant in others, said former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, now Brookings Institution visiting fellow and Harvard Kennedy School senior fellow: The TTC effort must be to agree on consistent rules.
The second-generation of OneWeb's low earth orbit broadband constellation could come with such features as lower latency and thermal imaging capabilities, OneWeb Executive Chairman Shravin Bharti Mittal said Wednesday at Satellite 2021. Appearing via livestream, Mittal said the company raised more funding than was needed for its first-gen constellation, giving it a cushion to allow it to start planning work on the second-gen. He said the first-gen constellation should provide constant coverage of northern latitudes including Alaska, Greenland and northern Russia within 60 to 90 days. He said all 648 planned satellites should be in orbit and providing global coverage by May or June 2022. Mittal and OneWeb said Wednesday the company signed an agreement with AT&T for the telco to use OneWeb capacity to improve remote coverage for businesses. Eutelsat said Wednesday it completed its $550 million OneWeb investment announced in April (see 2104270055).
The world is moving too slowly on international rules and standards to tackle the non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite boom, space law experts said Tuesday at the Satellite 2021 conference and trade show. Work toward such a legal regulatory regime should have started long before now, said Jennifer Manner, EchoStar senior vice president-regulatory affairs.
Qualcomm continues to be “positively impacted” by the growth in 5G and the “changing OEM landscape, resulting in the expansion of our addressable handset opportunity,” said CEO Cristiano Amon on a fiscal Q3 earnings call Wednesday, his first as chief executive. “We see the shifts in OEM market share create an incredible opportunity for us,” he said: “This quarter, Xiaomi is now the No. 2 OEM.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to explore cryptocurrency legislation to help enforcers trace and retrieve digital payments in ransomware attacks. Ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told us he would be “glad to work on legislation” with Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., after the latter expressed interest during Tuesday’s hearing with officials from DOJ, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Secret Service (see 2107230058).
The Commerce Department is prioritizing regulation that protects intellectual property, human rights and privacy without slowing innovation, Secretary Gina Raimondo said Tuesday. Various legislators and officials at a National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence summit called for international cooperation, investment and for setting artificial intelligence standards.
Controversy flared this week during talks on a treaty to update broadcasting protections for the digital age. Formal negotiations by the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) remain stalled due to COVID-19, but some member countries and observers were “quite shocked” to discover that an informal “friends of the chair” group had met twice this year to work on treaty language, emailed Knowledge Ecology Online Geneva Representative Thiru Balasubramaniam. The group, which had lain dormant during the COVID-19 pandemic, met before the Monday-Thursday partly virtual meeting. In his meeting summary, acting Chair Abdoul Aziz Dieng said he would consider concerns raised about the informal talks.
The House Science Committee unanimously advanced Tuesday the National Science Foundation for the Future Act (HR-2225), setting up a likely showdown on whether the chamber will approve that bill rather than the rival Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260). Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, prefers HR-2225’s approach to countering Chinese tech R&D. S-1260 would establish an NSF Technology Directorate; HR-2225 would establish a generalized Directorate for Science and Engineering Solutions.