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Topic: UK and US demands to access encrypted data are "unprincipled and unworkable" (Read 336 times)

sr. member
Activity: 434
Merit: 250
Loose lips sink sigs!
Isn't the point of these Country's respective secret intelligence / central intelligence departments to take encrypted or coded data and decode it to see what intelligence can be gained for national security?

Now they want corporations to do that work for them? If they want our encrypted data they should learn how to unencrypt it on their own AND work directly with the People of their country to get approval to access it.

Let's leave the corporations out of this - they really have nothing to do with it. They shouldn't be deciding to provide access to our data on our behalf. And they shouldn't be put in a position to have to choose between their customers or their government.
full member
Activity: 141
Merit: 116
A voice of reason and sanity. At last.
legendary
Activity: 1049
Merit: 1006


UK and US demands to access encrypted data are "unprincipled and unworkable"

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/07/uk-and-us-demands-to-access-encrypted-data-are-unprincipled-and-unworkable

<< Demands by US and British security agencies for access to encrypted communication data have been dealt a serious blow in a report by an influential group of cryptographers and computer scientists who dismiss the move as unprincipled and unworkable. They warn that such access "will open doors through which criminals and malicious nation states can attack the very individuals law enforcement seeks to defend".

The report says: "The costs would be substantial, the damage to innovation severe and the consequences for economic growth hard to predict. The costs to our moral authority would also be considerable."

The expert opinion comes on the eve of an appearance before the US Senate intelligence committee by the FBI director, James Comey, who last year savaged tech companies for embracing end-to-end encryption, claiming it would deprive the security services of potentially life-saving information.

David Cameron and the UK home secretary, Theresa May, are proposing to introduce legislation in the autumn to force companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft to provide access to encrypted data. The proposed legislation has been requested by the intelligence agencies, which say encryption has made their job much more difficult. >>
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