Following the news that Australia passed a hotly-debated national encryption law, IT security experts commented below.
Colin Bastable, CEO at Lucy Security:
“The issue is back doors and exploits – if governments can use them lawfully, cyber criminals can use them unlawfully. EternalBlue, for example, was gifted to cybercriminals by a leak from the NSA.
Australia is opening a backdoor, and we should assume that other Five Eyes nations will follow or are already there.
People should act on the basis that they have no privacy with email, web browsing or using a mobile app.”
Terrie Anderson, APAC Regional Director at Venafi:
“This new law will have an unfortunate impact on Australia’s citizens and technology industry. Simply put: it is not feasible to force organizations to create backdoors into their products and have them comply with the consumer protection standards outlined in GDPR.
In addition, giving the government backdoors to encryption destroys our security and makes communications more vulnerable. Government mandated backdoors will allow cyber criminals to undermine all types of private, secure communication.
Jake Moore, Cyber Securitye Expert at ESET UK:
“This could have a devastating knock-on effect around the world. Creating a back door for law enforcement will never assure that no one else will be able to access the database or files, and criminals will learn to exploit these vulnerabilities. If you break the fundamental way that encryption works, you risk breaking the internet and eradicating any trust and security. The www would stand for the ‘Wild Wild West’ not ‘World Wide Web.”
Ultimately, this law will not only hurt our technology industry, it will bolster the actions of malicious actors.”
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