Last week, a statement was issued last week by the “Five Eyes” nations – United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada – demanding tech companies provide ‘lawful access’ to encrypted digital content and promising compelled compliance if companies refuse to provide it. An expert with Juniper Networks offers perspective on the demand and the ongoing issue of encryption backdoors.
Nick Bilogorskiy, Cybersecurity Strategist at Juniper Networks:
“You can’t have a backdoor that’s only for the good guys. Once the encryption protocol has been handicapped and a door has been opened, other bad actors – from hackers to foreign governments – will walk through that door. Moreover, if backdoors are added then criminals are likely to switch to other services that do not have backdoors, or develop their own open-source tools. This would ultimately result in security being reduced for law abiding citizens more so than criminals.”
