If American law enforcement continues its efforts to ban unbreakable encryption, terrorists may not be the only ones “going dark.”
Despite the resolution of several high-profile encryption cases from American law enforcement such as the San Bernardino iPhone case, the FBI still insists that the “encryption war” is far from over. FBI director, James Comey, even declared that encryption was an “essential tradecraft” of terrorist organizations and cited the over 500 encrypted phones currently stalling criminal investigations. With all of this negative publicity, misinformed bills mandating decryption are gaining popularity and threaten the existence of secure encryption.
The logic justifying this push has always been that only criminals have information to hide; however, weakening encryption may end up duplicating the clipper chip fiasco where the National Security Agency (NSA) forced telecommunication devices to include backdoors in the form of specialized chips in the 1990’s. The end result was hundreds of thousands of compromised electronics with security weaknesses at the hardware level. Unfortunately, the renewed anti-encryption push has even greater potential for harm.
According to a recent study by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), American Internet users are altering their online behavior in response to lack of trust in Internet privacy and security. Because of the rise of data breaches and digital identity theft, including concerns over government surveillance, a significant number of the people surveyed have reported reducing their online financial transactions. This poses a serious threat to the U.S.’s growing e-commerce industry and may dampen innovation for online start-ups.
Worse, the NTIA’s study also reported that up to 25% of Americans had also reduced expressing or supporting controversial opinions on social media and other online services.
While the freedom of speech is often abused on the Internet in the form of cyberbullying, it has also made movements such as Black Lives Matter and the push for LGBT rights possible. If law enforcement agencies continue to expand their investigatory powers by handicapping encryption, the freedom of expression that Americans take for granted may exist on paper only.
While current anti-encryption bills are not the direct cause of mistrust of the Internet, encryption is an essential tool used by all modern businesses to protect their employees and customers from tech-savvy criminals. It is also used to protect the identities of activists and journalists under hostile situations. By attacking encryption, the FBI risks serious collateral damage and is failing to address the the root causes of terrorism. Instead of hastily condemning a fundamental security technology, legislators and American citizens need to realize the long-term impact of forcible decryption.
