The United Nations Security Council met on Tuesday to discuss the dangers of commercial spyware, marking the first time the council has discussed such software, also known as government or mercenary spyware.

According to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the goal of the conference is to "address the impact of the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware on the maintenance of international peace and security." The United States and 15 other countries have called for the meeting.

While the meeting was mostly informal and no specific recommendations were made, most participating countries, including France, South Korea and the United Kingdom, agreed that governments should take action to control the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware. Russia and China, on the other hand, have dismissed these concerns.

John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, a human rights group that has been investigating spyware abuse since 2012, testified about the spread of spyware. It warned that the spyware was produced by "a network of developers, brokers, middlemen and boutique companies" and "is threatening international peace and security and human rights."

Scott-Railton called Europe "the epicenter of spyware abuse" and fertile ground for spyware companies, citing a recent TechCrunch survey that showed Barcelona has become a hub for spyware companies over the past few years.

Representatives of Poland and Greece, whose spyware scandals involve software made by NSO Group and Intellexa respectively, also intervened.

The representative of Poland pointed to local legislative efforts to “impose greater controls on the relevant operational activities of security and intelligence services, including those of the judiciary,” while also recognizing that spyware can be used in a legal manner. "We are not saying that the use of spyware is unjustified or even unnecessary," the Polish representative said.

The Greek representative mentioned the country’s 2022 bill banning the sale of spyware.

Russia, on the other hand, blames the United States. Referring to the history of U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations of NSA espionage, the Russian representative said, “It is the United States that has specifically created a veritable global surveillance system that illegally interferes in the private lives of its own citizens, as well as those of Russian citizens. private life." other countries and continue to improve this system. "

China’s representative criticized the meeting itself, saying “discussing so-called commercial spyware and maintaining international peace and security is putting the cart before the horse compared with the more harmful proliferation activities of governments.”

“Since the Stuxnet incident, the proliferation of cyber weapons in advanced countries has created a series of major Internet risks, which are far more harmful than commercial spyware,” said the representative of China. Israel's actions are aimed at disrupting Iran's nuclear weapons program.

During the Biden administration, the U.S. government took multiple actions against commercial spyware, including sanctioning Israeli spyware manufacturers NSO Group and Candiru, as well as Greece-based Intellexa and its founder Tal Dilian; imposing sanctions on those engaged in the spyware industry Travel ban.
Last year, people who work or have worked in the spyware industry told TechCrunch they were worried about the impact sanctions and other punitive measures would have on them personally.