The Biden administration handed an government order Monday that seeks to implement strict new tips for what sort of industrial spy ware can be utilized by U.S. authorities businesses.

The brand new regulation permits the federal government to ban a specific vendor’s spy ware from being utilized by U.S. authorities businesses, if the corporate’s product is discovered to have contributed to human rights violations, has been used to focus on U.S. residents, or has been wielded in opposition to activists or journalists. In essence, the federal government is utilizing its presence as a serious shopper of protection merchandise as a cudgel to encourage surveillance companies to behave or face blacklisting.

The announcement comes amidst revelations that extra U.S. officers have been focused by spy ware than beforehand believed. On the identical day that the manager order was introduced, a senior US administration staffer instructed reporters that as many as 50 American officers are suspected or confirmed to have been focused by industrial spy ware in recent times. Earlier reporting on this topic has targeted on a handful of diplomats in overseas nations who had allegedly been focused for surveillance. The brand new tally exhibits that, in actuality, the imprint of overseas campaigns geared toward U.S. officers could also be a lot broader.

“Business spy ware – subtle and invasive cyber surveillance instruments offered by distributors to entry digital units remotely, extract their content material, and manipulate their parts, all with out the data or consent of the units’ customers – has proliferated in recent times with few controls and excessive threat of abuse,” the White Home’s announcement reads. “The proliferation of business spy ware poses distinct and rising counterintelligence and safety dangers to the USA, together with to the protection and safety of U.S. Authorities personnel and their households.”

It needs to be famous that the Biden administration will not be banning the federal government use of business spy ware outright, neither is it even promising to not use it. As an alternative, the main target of the manager order is on curbing industrial distributors which were caught participating in exercise deemed troubling from a human rights perspective (*cough, cough* the NSO Group), or that don’t seem to have qualms about letting their instruments goal U.S. networks or officers.

The order follows on the footsteps of quite a few different legislative and regulatory efforts that the White Home has taken to crack down on the industrial spy ware business. These embody new regulatory tips that set limits on how and when former U.S. authorities officers can go to work for overseas cyber companies, in addition to efforts to shift export controls to restrict the unfold of sure merchandise. The federal government additionally blacklisted the NSO Group, some of the controversial distributors within the spy ware business.

The Biden administration can also be co-hosting a “Summit for Democracy” later this week, that may contain officers from quite a few completely different nations. The White Home says its current government order is an instance of an initiative “advancing expertise for democracy,” in alignment with the summit’s values.