The UK’s war on encryption is dangerous

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The writer is the head of an encrypted correspondent signal

Imagine a government that tells the car company to firmly weaken the brakes effective on all the cars it sells, which exposes the safety of millions in a reckless manner. It will be an unimaginable undermining of public safety.

Unfortunately, this is what happens in the UK in Cyber ​​Security, where Apple was forced to strip the vital privacy and security protection of encryption from one side to a party from the backup storage service-exposing people and infrastructure to large weaknesses.

Apple is not the villain here. This was not a light choice. The company has invested billions of dollars in research and development of encryption and marketing itself as a privacy company.

But Apple was trapped in a corner after receiving a government order in the UK calling for rewriting and weakening the basic privacy technology, and the weaknesses of the weakness of the UK, but at the global level, in order to give the government the “back door” access to the coded cloud storage data for customers.

The government also ordered the company not to inform anyone, using the so -called “SNOOPERS Charter” to maintain demand, and the deterioration of the safety that has been assigned, the secret.

Instead of compliance, Apple stripped the encryption of backup copies alone and made a legal complaint. This is to reduce harm, but it is still harmful. If you are in the United Kingdom, your backup copies – are full of things like sensitive business documents, intimate photos, evidence and financial records – are now vulnerable to breakthroughs, violations, theft and hostile government requests that Apple may resist or do not resist.

For those outside the United Kingdom, the news is still bad. Communication does not remain within the judicial boundaries. Anything you shared with friends or their peers in the UK is now lacking encoding from one side. This image that I sent a friend, or the secret information that you shared with a party to one side, is now weak.

If this is what Apple can submit, then we must also stop, and shive up, because we think about other technology companies that have received such a secret matter, and instead of fighting, they were silently. Business leaders in particular should be concerned about what this might mean for them, the confidence they put in cloud servers, software and other important systems that can be secretly undergoing the reckless danger.

The UK is an integral part of the dangerous trend that threatens cybersecurity for our global infrastructure. Sweden lawmakers recently suggested a that would force communications providers to build weaknesses on the back door. France is preparing to make the same error when to include “ghost participants” in safe talks across the rear doors. “Chat control” legislation is chasing Brussels.

Basic infrastructure such as air traffic control, medical devices and emergency operations depend on calculations and programs. The use of strong encryption to protect security and privacy is the issue of national security.

The threat is not hypothetical. Last year, the United States government revealed the Salt Typhoon attacks on American and wireless communications systems, as infiltrators in the national state from China were able to access communication records, text messages and other intimate information for millions of Americans. Among the potential victims are President Donald Trump. How do infiltrators do this? Take advantage of the “back doors” integrated into communications systems.

The main issue is simple: encryption is mathematics and mathematics that does not distinguish between a government investigator and a criminal infiltrator – the back door is a back door, and if there is, anyone can enter.

There is also a contradiction in playing. If politicians dream of making the UK a technology center, they should not undermine the foundations of cybersecurity, on which the practical technology industry depends.

The government must withdraw its misleading mandate. Instead of cutting the brake cables hidden on the technological car, it should enhance the security and privacy of the technology that forms the nervous system in our world. Business leaders must also play a role, which shows that these dangerous moves are unacceptable, and to push the companies that license them from technology to spread encryption, and other protection, without which their interests and their customers will be at risk.

We have given many basic operations in our lives and technology institutions. We must realize that strong encryption is not the enemy of security – it is He is protection. The argument that the weakness of encryption will make any of us safer is a mistake as dangerous.