Export Controls and Spyware: Enhancing Oversight, Transparency and Restraint

The proliferation and misuse of spyware and other cyber-surveillance tools pose significant threats to human rights and national security. Export controls and sanctions are critical components of wider attempts to regulate the production and trade in these tools and to prevent exports that are likely to be misused. Further expansions in the use of sanctions and export controls have been encouraged by recent multilateral initiatives. However, export controls and sanctions are complex instruments, and to deploy these tools effectively, states require a deeper understanding of how they work and what they can and cannot achieve.

This report reviews the content of the export controls and sanctions that have been applied to the trade in spyware and other cyber-surveillance tools. The analysis is supported by a detailed study of the types of spyware and other cyber-surveillance tools that have been captured by export controls and sanctions, and a mapping of the location of the companies that produce these tools. The report presents recommendations aimed at improving the consistency and effectiveness of efforts to use export controls and sanctions to tackle the proliferation and misuse of spyware and other cyber-surveillance tools, highlighting steps that can be taken at the national, multinational and European Union levels.

To accompany this report, SIPRI has produced an interactive map that shows the location of companies that produce spyware and other cyber-surveillance tools that were active in August 2025.
 

Click here to view the map.