BIC Sends New Wassenaar NPRM to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking from DOC’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for “Title: Information Security Controls: Cybersecurity Items”. The Spring 2021 Unified Agenda list for the rulemaking describes it thus:

“In 2013, the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) added cybersecurity items to the WA List. On May 20, 2015, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a proposed rule showing the public how these new controls would fit into the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and requested information about the impact on U.S. industry. The public comments revealed serious scope and implementation issues regarding these controls and the proposed rule. Based on these comments, as well as substantial commentary from Congress, the private sector, academia, civil society, and others on the potential unintended consequences of the 2013 control, the U.S. government returned to WA to renegotiate the controls. This Notice outlines the progress the U.S. has made in this area, proposed Commerce Control List (CCL) implementation, and requests from the public information about the impact of these revised controls on U.S. industry and the cybersecurity community.”