Security News > 2022 > August > Ex-CIA security boss predicts coming crackdown on spyware

Still, Rubrik's new Chief Information Security Officer Michael Mestrovich, who was previously the CISO of the CIA, knows a thing or two about cyber spies and ransomware gangs, and in an interview with The Register, he weighed in on both hot topics.

Last month, during a House Intelligence Committee hearing, security researchers and internet rights groups called on Congress to sanction and step up enforcement against surveillanceware makers like NSO Group's Pegasus spyware.

"I would expect, going forward, there will be either executive orders or legislation passed to ensure that the civil liberties and the rights that we all expect to data privacy and privacy of our own activities are kept sacrosanct," he added.

"Clearly, the cyber criminals have monetized the theft of data or depriving an organization use of its data," Mestrovich said.

"Until we can do something to prevent the economic gain that they have from the theft of data or the denial of an organization's access to his data. This is only going to increase".

"How are we ensuring that the second and third parties that we do business with are taking the same mechanisms to protect the data that we would take to protect the data as an organizational entity?," Mestrovich asked.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/08/11/cia_security_boss_spyware/