After years of being dominated by outsiders, the computer surveillance software industry is booming in the United States as investors rush into the ethically dodgy but highly lucrative field.

The Atlantic Council think tank reported that US investment in surveillanceware rocketed in the last year and identified 20 new US investors, and noted the number of resellers is also rapidly increasing.

"The quantity of US-based entities investing in the spyware market is three times greater than in the next three highest countries with the most investors," the annual report, entitled Mythical Beasts, found .

"Rapidly increasing investment into this technology is concerning, as it effectively undermines recent, concerted US government efforts to constrain the spyware market."

Surveillanceware is

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