(C) Alec Muffett's DropSafe blog.
Author Name: Alec Muffett
This story was originally published on allecmuffett.com. [1]
License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.[2]


Home Office to spearhead anti-encryption public comms campaign

2022-01-18 18:48:04+00:00

Ciaran Martin, the founding chief executive of the GCHQ-based National Cyber Security Centre, has previously voiced concern and scepticism about government’s rhetoric on encryption and its proposals for means of access, which he indicated in a speech given in November could “weaken privacy and cybersecurity, possibly catastrophically”.

Martin, who ended a 23-year civil-service career in 2020 and now works for the Blavatnik School of Government, added that ministers’ “tone is often forthright and technically wrong” when discussing encryption.

The former security chief said he found it “highly inappropriate and deeply offensive to portray those on that side of the [other side of the] argument as being unconcerned about the horrors of online child sex abuse”.

He added: “The government is, in effect, demanding that the tech industry does something to keep access open – at the same time, of course, as demanding the highest possible levels of cybersecurity. The industry, backed by most of the relevant expertise, is saying that what the government is demanding is simply not possible. Some experts say, in effect, that the government is arguing not against a policy decision, but against mathematics. The government’s response is simply to assert that: ‘no, you are wrong, it is possible, and you should go away and do it’.

“Surely though, the onus is on the government, not the industry, to set out clearly and transparently how they believe these two seemingly irreconcilable objectives can be met in the same regulatory package?”

https://www.publictechnology.net/articles/news/home-office-spearhead-anti-encryption-public-comms-campaign
[END]

[1] URL: https://alecmuffett.com/article/15916
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

DropSafe Blog via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/alecmuffett/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.