(C) Alec Muffett's DropSafe blog.
Author Name: Alec Muffett
This story was originally published on allecmuffett.com. [1]
License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.[2]
FlipperZero vs: NSO’s Pegasus vs: Gamma FinFisher vs: Export Controls & the Wassenaar Arrangement: the difference is intent
2024-03-07 20:47:09+00:00
I have spent far more than a decade – although the last decade has doubtless been the most interesting – explaining to peers in Digital Rights Civil Society that “it’s a bad idea to attempt to regulate the shape of technology, because of the principle of dual-use.”
I’ve laid open bets – and I’ve never lost – to “pick a cyberweapon and describe it; I will provide a civil use-case” – which is why I argued against runaway attempts to regulate “Digital Arms”, and we are seeing much the same misapprehension that you can somehow judge software by the shape and activity of it, rather than by its deployed human intention, in more recent stories like Pegasus.
“Let’s keep the usage of spyware under strict control?” – the gap between spyware and mobile device management (MDM) is a slender one, best described by intention above all else.
The most delightful of examples of this – from the other side of the coin – is now upon us: the FlipperZero is a lovely little general-purpose tool which can be used to do many things, including break into cars… so of course the Canadians want to ban it.
And now, what do we see? Civil society in support of a hacking general purpose tool.
People, take note:
https://saveflipper.ca/
[END]
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https://alecmuffett.com/article/109340
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