Western Fears of Encryption Lack Substance

In formal comments to the UK Parliament yesterday, Apple pushed back against the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, which would require the company to provide the government with access to its users’ communications. In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, the political debate on law enforcement ‘going dark’ due to encryption has resurfaced again in the United States and the United Kingdom. However, governments have yet to demonstrate evidence of a loss of security capability because of encryption. The demand of mandating access to communications will encourage other governments to seek similar capabilities. This will add cost and complexity to engineered technical solutions, and introduce new vulnerabilities. If law enforcement needs access to encrypted communications content, investment in capabilities to attack endpoints (laptops, mobile phones) is an alternative solution. Such a capability would raise demand for increased cooperation between cybersecurity providers and government.