Nov 13, 2015

Encryption Backdoors Are a Terrible Idea, Says Deirdre Mulligan

From the Christian Science Monitor

Opinion: Miscalculating the risk of crypto 'backdoors'

By Deirdre K. Mulligan

As Britain continues to debate its revised Investigatory Powers bill, which opponents deride as the "snoopers' charter," it seems increasingly evident that Prime Minister David Cameron is lockstep with many US law enforcement officials when it comes to the encryption debate. 

While Mr. Cameron's government claims that the bill doesn't mandate so-called "backdoors" into encryption on consumer devices, the bill suggests otherwise. It currently states that communication service providers must maintain the capability to remove "electronic protection" they apply to protect communications or data....

Whether it's Britain or the US insisting that tech companies develop a mechanism to give police or spy agencies access to encrypted communications, backdoors put everyone at risk. And what’s at stake is far larger than whether the FBI, British investigators, local police departments,or foreign government officials can decipher information they've retrieved from an iPhone

Simply put, encryption backdoors introduce security vulnerabilities in our devices, degrading the cryptography that protects the integrity of systems. In our highly connected world, the security vulnerabilities in one device, such as a smartphone, are often the gateway used to attack another, such as our home or business automation systems....

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Deirdre K. Mulligan is an associate professor at the School of Information UC Berkeley, and coauthor with Kenneth Bamberger of "Privacy on the Ground: Driving Corporate Behavior in the United States and Europe," just out from MIT Press.

Last updated:

October 4, 2016