"As spyware market continues to expand, diplomatic Pall Mall Process hits a pivot point" 9 April 2025

A year on from its launch and days after the Pall Mall Process held its second diplomatic conference, this time in Paris, participants are concerned that the initiative may struggle to surmount the next hurdle facing the effort to reform the spyware and commercial hacking market: getting buy-in from the market itself.

That market for what are formally called commercial cyber intrusion capabilities (CCICs) is growing, as the conference organizers announced earlier this year.

Those participating in the Pall Mall Process say that left unaddressed, this growth will produce more abuses of the technology targeting “journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents and opponents and foreign government officials,” as British intelligence warned in 2023...

...The work of participants to-date led to the publication of a Code of Practice on Friday, as first reported by Recorded Future News. The voluntary, non-binding code sets out how countries will regulate CCICs, tackle companies that commit illegal or irresponsible activity, and attempt to avoid hoarding cybersecurity vulnerabilities themselves.

It follows a diplomatic format, with participants submitting track changes to shared statements before deciding whether to endorse the final output. On Friday, 21 countries initially signed the Code of Practice. Romania also signed up on Monday...

...Some of the more controversial companies in the CICCs space, including NSO Group, have begun to engage with the Pall Mall Process, according to Recorded Future News’ sources, although these engagements remain at an early stage. ..

...“A great outcome would be a document that could provide orientation for public procurement guidelines, compliance offices in companies, export control regimes, etc,” said Alexandra Paulus, one of the conference’s participants from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs added. “But I think that will take a few more iterations, I don’t see it happening by next year.”