The Wassenaar Arrangement in the Age of Cloud Surveillance
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: International Relations (International agreements and groupings - Wassenaar Arrangement, MTCR, Australia Group, NSG); Science & Technology (Cloud Computing, SaaS, Cybersecurity, Dual-Use Technologies).
Mains:
General Studies Paper 2 (International Relations): Important International institutions, agencies and fora—their structure, mandate; Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India.
General Studies Paper 3 (S&T, Security): Awareness in the fields of IT, Computers; Basics of cyber security; Challenges to internal security through communication networks.
Key Highlights from the News
Israel's military using cloud computing services like Microsoft Azure to monitor Palestinians exposes the failure of existing global export control regimes.
The Wassenaar Arrangement is a key international group that controls the export of traditional weapons and dual-use goods and technologies (used for both military and civilian purposes). India became a member in 2017.
Main Problem: This system was designed to control the export of physical goods. However, it cannot control digital services, like cloud services, which can be easily provided across borders.
Key Shortcomings of the Wassenaar Arrangement:
It is a voluntary agreement, not legally binding.
Decisions are based on consensus, so any member can block changes.
There is no clarity on whether remote access to software constitutes an "export."
The article argues that this system needs to be updated. Key proposals include: adding surveillance technologies to the control list, considering remote access as an export, and making the agreement legally binding.
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