Tech Giants Won't Help the Feds Hack You, Your Business

Microsoft, Facebook, and 30 other technology companies have vowed to never help governments launch cyber attacks on civilians and enterprises.

On Tuesday, 34 companies signed the tech accord in an effort to stop government-sponsored cyber attacks from spiraling out of control.

At the RSA security conference, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the need for the tech accord was underscored by two massive ransomwareoutbreaks last year—WannaCry and NotPetya—which the US has blamed on North Korea and Russia, respectively.

"We saw governments attacking civilians in a time of peace," Smith said, pointing to how the outbreaks infected Windows systems owned by private businesses and hospitals, particularly in the UK and Ukraine.

Both WannaCry and NotPetya also rapidly spread thanks to leaked hacking tools that appear to have come from the US National Security Agency. Tuesday's tech accord essentially draws a line between the tech industry and governments on developing cyber weapons.

The agreement states that signers will protect their technology products from tampering and exploitation. Signers also vowed to protect customers from cyberattacks, no matter the hacker's motive, "whether criminal or geopolitical."

In addition to Microsoft and Facebook, ARM, Cisco, LinkedIn and Oracle signed Tuesday's tech accord. But missing are several big names including Apple, Google, and Intel.

Smith announced the tech accord as he's been urging governments to adopta digital "Geneva Conventions" that'd make cyber attacks on civilian-owned computers illegal.

"As we've all seen so clearly, we need governments to do more," Smith said at the RSA conference. "We're living in a world where the most serious cyber attacks are no longer by individuals or criminal groups. They are by nations."