![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Law enforcement officials in the US have also repeatedly called for companies to build back doors into encryption. ![]() Authorities are still determining the exact scope of what companies will be required to do under the law with respect to encryption. The UK’s Investigatory Powers Act allows authorities to compel companies to take undefined “reasonable” and “practicable” measures to facilitate interception, including of unencrypted data. In March, in the immediate aftermath of the Westminster attack, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd called end-to-end encryption on apps such as WhatsApp “completely unacceptable” and stated that “there should be no place for terrorists to hide.” On June 13, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron announced a counter-terrorism joint action plan that calls for greater access to encrypted communications. In recent years, law enforcement officials in some Five Eyes countries have contended that they are losing some of their ability to investigate crime or prevent terrorism because advances in consumer encryption have led some channels of information that were previously accessible to “go dark.” Companies like Apple and WhatsApp have begun to integrate “end-to-end” encryption into their products by default, which makes it impossible for even the companies to retrieve unscrambled user data at the request of the government because the firms do not hold the decryption “keys.” Some officials have gone further and sought legislation to ensure that their governments can access all encrypted data, even if this would force companies to build “back doors” or other vulnerabilities into phones and applications to bypass encryption.Īustralian Attorney General George Brandis plans to raise the need for new restrictions on the encryption built into popular messaging applications with Five Eyes counterparts, stating that existing laws “don’t go far enough.” The meeting is expected to address the increasing use of end-to-end encrypted communications as a challenge to surveillance and seek a coordinated approach. Law enforcement and intelligence agency representatives from each state will gather in Ottawa to discuss shared national security concerns. The Five Eyes is an intelligence sharing partnership between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. “Agencies charged with protecting national security shouldn’t be trying to undermine a cornerstone of security in the digital age.” “Encryption protects billions of ordinary people worldwide from criminals and authoritarian regimes,” said Cynthia Wong, senior internet researcher at Human Rights Watch. Governments should instead promote strong encryption as a key component of cybersecurity. Technologists caution that companies cannot build a “back door” that can only be used by law-abiding officials, while keeping out bad actors. But technologists and digital security experts have warned that imposing any requirement to build back doors into encryption or banning end-to-end encryption would broadly undermine cybersecurity. People sit at computers inside GCHQ, Britain's intelligence agency, in Cheltenham, UK, November 17, 2015.įorcing technology companies to give governments “back door” access into all digital communications will do little to prevent terrorists from shielding their activities. ![]()
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