UK Publishes Update to Open General Export Licenses for Information Security Items

The United Kingdom released an update relating to substantial changes made to two open general export licenses for information security items, the Department for International Trade said in a May 26 guidance. The two OGELS were amended to include China, Hong Kong and Macao as permitted destinations, however the additions have been balanced by a reduction of the list of permitted items. All items specified in Schedule 1 of the new OGEL for information security items must only use “standard encryption algorithms that have been approved or adopted by recognized international standards bodies (examples: 3GPP, ETSI, GSMA, IEEE, IETF, ISO, ITU, TIA),” and “any cryptographic functionality used by the item cannot be easily changed by the user.” Any potential exporter of these goods must register through the UK's SPIRE portal, the export control joint unit's electronic licensing system.