Kevin Wolf Quoted by Washington Post and POLITICO on Recent Commerce Dept. Ruling over Cybersecurity Exports

Akin Gump international trade partner Kevin Wolf has been quoted by The Washington Post and POLITICO regarding the recent U.S. Department of Commerce ruling involving the “export or resale of hacking tools to China and Russia while still enabling cybersecurity collaboration across borders.”

In the Post’s article “Commerce Department announces new rule aimed at stemming sale of hacking tools to Russia and China,” the publication notes that the ruling would ban the sale of hacking software and equipment to China and Russia, among other countries of concern, without a license issued from Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Wolf, a former Commerce Department Assistant Secretary of Export Administration, agreed, adding that if there is any doubt regarding whether a requested export would be exclusively for a legitimate end use and end user, BIS will deny the application.

The publication also noted that Wolf, who was responsible for the efforts to revise and improve the rule when he was in the government, was pleased to see the ruling come to fruition. He said, “Commerce appears to have threaded the needle of controlling cyber intrusion software without harming legitimate cyber defense efforts.”

With respect to the issue of the rule’s complexity, he made a general point about export controls, which is that simple rules are easy to understand, but generally control too much. Tailored rules to achieve specific objectives without collateral consequences tend to be complex. The Commerce Department opted for the latter approach.

Wolf noted that if, however, a company has an issue with any part of the rule, it has 45 days to submit a comment asking for a revision. Commerce will then have 45 days to consider the comment before the rule becomes effective.