Government and the tech industry must cooperate to encourage encryption and protect society
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Given the string of high-profile and costly cyberattacks that have taken place over the last couple of years, you’d think everyone would see urgency in encouraging security measures like encryption. After all, everyone loses when credit scores and bank accounts get hacked.
And yet, the U.S. government has raised legitimate concerns regarding encryption. As Reuters reports:
“U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Tuesday sharply criticized technology companies that have built strongly encrypted products, suggesting Silicon Valley is more willing to comply with foreign government demands for data than those made by their home country.
While echoing many arguments made by previous senior U.S. law enforcement officials, Rosenstein struck a harder line than his predecessors who led the Obama Justice Department, dismissing attempts to negotiate with the tech sector as a waste of time and accusing companies of putting sales over stopping crime.
“Company leaders may be willing to meet, but often they respond by criticizing the government and promising stronger encryption,” Rosenstein said during a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, according to a copy of his remarks. “Of course they do. They are in the business of selling products and making money. … We are in the business of preventing crime and saving lives.”
Rosenstein’s first lengthy comments on encryption signaled a desire for Congress to write legislation mandating that companies provide access to encrypted products when a law enforcement agency obtains a court order.
Tech companies and many cyber security experts say requiring law enforcement access to encrypted products will broadly weaken cyber security for everyone. U.S. officials have countered that default encryption settings hinder their ability to collect evidence needed to pursue criminals.
Previous officials have urged such an approach, but Rosenstein more directly criticized Silicon Valley. He cited a series of media reports to suggest U.S.-based companies are more willing to accede to demands for data from foreign governments than they are from the United States.
The remarks were quickly denounced by supporters of strong encryption.”
At Evizone, we believe in the need to cooperate with law enforcement with appropriate due process. There should not be an open license for government to access any data they desire without safeguards; yet there are many compelling arguments that law enforcement must have access to data in order to keep society safe and functioning. There are just as many compelling arguments that data must be protected by encryption to keep society safe and functioning.
We call upon governments and the tech industry to engage in a broad dialogue to strike the right balance. At Evizone we strike the balance between high security and compliance with regulations every day. Give us a call to find out how we do it!
About Evizone Ltd.
Evizone Ltd. is a revolutionary secure communications, encryption and compliance software and service provider based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Evizone offers innovative enterprise solutions in secure messaging (next generation beyond encrypted e mail) and encryption, encryption at rest, regulatory compliance, compliance archiving, WORM compliance, 17a-4 compliance, document life cycle management and communications governance and risk management. Evizone’s services protect organizations through best in class security, encryption, recipient controls, document life cycle management, discovery management, compliance management, compliance archiving, tamper proof WORM and 17a-4 compliance archiving and complete audit records against the enormous damage caused by communications breaches. Evizone’s patented technologies offer a level of security impossible to obtain with conventional or encrypted email and fast, powerful, user friendly compliance archiving. Evizone’s services are immediately available on multiple platforms and provide the strongest commercially available communications security and compliance archiving. You can follow Evizone on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Contact:
Tom Kott, HATLEY Strategy Advisors, 514.316.7082, tkott@hatleystrategies.com
