Following the announcement from the Dutch government that strong encryption is essential for the security of the country, encryption expert Dr Nithin Thomas said why creating back doors or weakening technology must be avoided.
Dr Nithin Thomas, Co-Founder and CEO of SQR Systems :
“The decisive announcement from the Netherlands to maintain strong encryption and avoid implementing back-door access sets a powerful example that other world governments should follow.
“Dutch security and justice minister Ard van der Steur is correct in asserting that strong encryption is vital to the privacy and security of the entire country. Creating back doors in encryption technology would just as readily create access for hackers as it would intelligence services, leaving everything from individual financial data to national secrets at risk.
“Rather than pursuing any approach that would make current encryption technology less secure, we must ensure that the organisations and individuals that own the data are able to access and control it themselves. This would allow them to comply with legal needs during investigations and criminal proceedings without compromising security. This requires communications service providers to re-think their communications security architecture and corporate policy to enable them to deal with legal intercepts.
“By passing responsibility for lawful disclosure to the individuals and organisations that own the data, we will remove the need to damage the protection that encryption affords. This will also create more trust between users and authorities, with the process becoming more transparent rather than occurring behind closed doors.”
[su_box title=”About Dr. Nithin Thomas” style=”noise” box_color=”#336588″]
Nithin Thomas is a technology entrepreneur with expertise in development and commercialisation of technology research, having developed much of the early technology at SQR Systems during his academic career at the University of Bristol. He is the CEO and Co-founder of SQR Systems, where he has grown the company from a concept to early revenues, successfully delivering R&D projects through various private and public funded research programmes focussing on cybersecurity and secure data transmission. Prior to SQR Systems, Nithin worked in sales and marketing at a global technology consultancy.[/su_box]
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