Following the comments made by MI5 Director General Andrew Parker that data encryption technology was creating a situation where police and intelligence agencies “can no longer obtain under proper legal warrant the communication of people they believe to be terrorists”. Dr Nithin Thomas, founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm SQR Systems, said “It is vital for organisations to have full control of their data to ensure user privacy without compromising their compliance to the legal system and assistance with investigations”.
[su_note note_color=”#ffffcc” text_color=”#00000″]Dr Nithin Thomas, Founder and CEO of cybersecurity Firm SQR Systems :
As pointed out by Andrew Parker, technology has advanced much faster than legislatures could have predicted and has begun to move beyond the reach of the law. The latest end-to-end security measures used by services like Apple’s iMessenger have focussed purely on offering end-to-end protection of data without any consideration for the organisations that own the data and the legal obligations they have to meet. I believe the onus is on organisations to invest in gaining more control over the data they handle, and enable access when necessary in a more transparent way that is fully compliant to the legislation. This needs to be a universal standard across all forms of communication, not limited to a few select services.
“With the next generation of encryption it will be possible for organisations to meet their obligations from a legal perspective, without impacting the privacy and security that is so important to users.”[/su_note][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]
