Encryption ‘back doors’ are a bad idea

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How much authority should “snoop” democratic governments about citizens’ online data and communication? The UK government has used new legal powers so that Apple creates a “back door” enables law enforcement agencies to access the encrypted data uploaded users uploaded to the cloud. Apple has moved out of Britain and responded instead Most secure Cloud Storage Service-which uses end-to-end encryption that means Apple means it cannot access the data.

Britain is not alone. The government of Sweden wants to open an open messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp Back doorThe When it becomes a law, the signal is threatening to leave Sweden. Cases are still the amount of the biggest conflict between the western government’s understandable desire Terrorism And child sexual abuse online, and gold standard encryption is now widely used to protect the user’s privacy in messaging apps and clouds.

In both cases the FBI tried to force the echo of war Apple A terrorist in the California shooting in California to help break it on the iPhone. Apple says that if it creates the back door of the iPhone for the FBI, contaminated actors can discover it and use it to crack other phones. Finally a hacking firm Unlock the phone For the FBI, the stand -off is over.

The British and Swedish claims are much wider. Its investigative power uses the Law – which critics have called a “Snoppers Certificate” – the UK Home Office has issued a notice Apple needs To allow British law enforcement to be equipped with court order, to tap back-ups and other cloud data anywhere in the world.

However the underlying dilemma is the same. When millions of people are sending or saving sensitive data online, they say money or health, data protection is universal. End-to-end encryption, where only the user and service supplier do not contain the key, is the best protection.

Most cyber protection experts argue that hackers, including authoritarian states, cannot be accessed by government agencies without creating weaknesses that can abuse. Something like this has already happened. In an attack called “Salt Typhoon”, Chinese hackers used a government-back door and even phone calls to access call and text data on US telecommunications networks last year Top politiciansThe

In the UK, about 239 civil society groups, companies and cyber security experts have called on the government Rescue Apple claims that it is “the protection and privacy of millions of people in danger”. Using similar arguments, two US Congressional Monitoring Committee bipartisan members ask new national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard to demand the UK. By withdrawing its orders -And if it is not to consider the sharing of the US-UK detectives.

This is undoubtedly a thorny problem. No one wants to be able to avoid identification of terrorists and child abuse. Some UK security officers have emphasized privacy protection Can coexist With “exceptional legal access”, and argued that technology companies could find a cute workplace. Technology experts do not have any stupid ups compromise yet.

However, almost all the major technology companies cooperate properly with legitimate law enforcement requests that do not involve “back door” on a regular basis; Apple’s latest UK’s transparent report It shows 93 percent of the emergency requests. If a solution is created, it enables it to safely occur with the end to end encryption, cooperation should also extend to the region. Now, however, the government should be considered as a common good protection. Criminal minorities’ efforts should not be reduced to the protection and privacy of the majority of law enforcement.