'Five Eyes' security alliance calls for access to encrypted material

[steven36]

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance said on Tuesday that tech firms must allow law enforcement agencies access to encrypted material, warning that failing to do so put people at risk.

 

 

After a two-day summit in London, senior ministers from the group comprising the United States and allies Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, said encryption should not come at the expense of the public’s safety.

 

“We are concerned where companies deliberately design their systems in a way that precludes any form of access to content, even in cases of the most serious crimes,” the group said in a statement following the conference.

 

“Tech companies should include mechanisms in the design of their encrypted products and services whereby governments, acting with appropriate legal authority, can obtain access to data in a readable and usable format.”

 

The five English-speaking allies have an agreement to share intelligence and techniques for gathering it, a relationship that evolved from a secret World War Two alliance between British and U.S. cypher and code breaking teams.

 

Encrypted data makes it harder for spies to pry. Western governments have said this can complicate investigations and prosecutions of those involved in child sex abuse or terrorism.

 

However, tech firms have warned that putting “backdoors” into their systems to allow the authorities access would weaken security and make them more vulnerable to attacks from criminals or foreign states.

 

“The Five Eyes are united that tech firms should not develop their systems and services, including end-to-end encryption, in ways that empower criminals or put vulnerable people at risk,” said British Home Secretary Priti Patel.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump’s attorney general William Barr attracted controversy last week when he complained about how the proliferation of “warrant-proof encryption” was making it easier for criminals to “evade detection”.

 

“Encryption presents a unique challenge. We must ensure that we do not stand by as advances in technology create spaces where criminal activity of the most heinous kind can go undetected and unpunished,” Barr said after the security summit.

 

Britain’s Home Office said that the tech industry, which took part in a roundtable with ministers, agreed to collaborate with the Five Eyes on a set of voluntary principles, which will be drawn up by the end of the September, on steps to combat child sex abuse, including the growing threat of livestreaming.

 

Source

[orbystorm]

Its great to catch criminals but bad for the rest of us.Especially if your an investigative reporter.

[Infinite_Vision]

"Tech companies should include mechanisms in the design of their encrypted products and services whereby governments, acting with appropriate legal authority, can obtain access to data in a readable and usable format.”

 

Didn't we learn from the last fiasco of the Russian Collusion probe?  I think the 4th amendment is very important because government tend to abuse their powers.  These powers are given to them by the people.  "We the people hold this to be..."  If a law abiding citizen does nothing wrong then he/she shouldn't be subjected to illegal search and seizures.  They already have cameras on almost every street corner, on the highways, home, school, work,etc.  They could tap your phone already.  They could look at your bank record in real time.  They even have facial scan.  We have laws that the government could unmask people and then it was abused by UN ambassador.  How do we know it's not going to be abused again?  And how do we know those information are not going to be leaked?  A lot of times, the government hires third party contractors who have in turn release stolen information on the web.  A lot times, those information came from people inside the system like Snowden "Clown".    

 

[straycat19]

All this back and forth talk is stupid and a waste of time.  All the governments need to do is pass a law making encrypted software without a backdoor for law enforcement or intelligent agencies to use illegal.  End of discussion.

[steven36]

1 hour ago, straycat19 said:

All this back and forth talk is stupid and a waste of time.  All the governments need to do is pass a law making encrypted software without a backdoor for law enforcement or intelligent agencies to use illegal.  End of discussion.

It's not that easy are they would of already done it , Laws  don't mean nothing no way they change like the weather it's like all that  stuff that was passed for Net Neutrality  got repealed , Trumps whole agenda has been roiling back laws that was put in before . What will happen when next guy gets in there ? They will  get rid of  every thing Trump did  to pay him back. Its like Guns you take them away and then criminals only have them the UK leads by example on this.So criminals still will have encryption without backdoors    In the EU  they ban things with USA Backdoors  even, just like Germany have ban Office 360 ,Apple and Google Cloud in schools. If they passed such a law all  these big Tech companies would be banned in most of the world except for 5 eyes the rest the world don't really trust them with that kind of power, even there people in  USA government that don't trust Barr or Trump with kind of power not to abuse it.

 

And laws that apply to big tech don't even apply to open source. former FBI director James Comey said that when he try to back door Apple that open source would still remain a problem . People that care about there privacy and criminals will just stop using big tech  and most people who care about there privacy  already are trying to not use it no more than they have too . If it boils down too it we can quit using any software made in a 5 eyes country   that uses encryption .

 

That the great thing about the USA government can voted out very fast for violating the constitution . The USA it changes like the Wind what is done today may not mean anything in 4 years .It not like some countries were time is on the governments side , In the USA the clock is  always winding down on them and it depends on there actions if it gets winded back up. Nixon  try this sort of spying crap on everyone and see were it got him in the end. Back then there excuse was communism  now it's terrorism  they always  have some-kind of  ism  excuse they use to try to invade peoples privacy .

 

PS; Last but not lest the only people that want backdoors are people that are too stupid to break encryption to begin with  , if they could  break it nothing would be said and as long as it can't be broke some will make it without backdoors legal or not.