Civil society groups take aim at Five Eyes on encryption

More than six dozen civil society organizations and individuals have come out to reiterate support for stronger data encryption in a letter addressed to a quintet of the world’s intelligence agencies, following a statement from the group that encryption could be standing in the way of public safety. The Friday letter, which was organized by Access Now, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and researchers from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, is intended to address a two-day meeting held between five global security agencies, known as The Five Eyes, in Ottawa this week. The alliance consists of Canada’s Communications Security Establishment Canada, the U.S.’s National Security Agency, the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters, the Australian Signals Directorate, and New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau. “This week’s Five Eyes meeting (comprised of Ministers from the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia) discussed ‘plans to press technology firms to share encrypted data with security agencies’ and hopes to achieve ‘a common position on the extent of…legally imposed obligations on…device-makers and social media companies to co-operate,’” said the letter, which has 83 signatories. According to a joint communiqué dated Tuesday, the Five Eyes coalition suggested “encryption can severely undermine public safety efforts by impeding lawful access to the content of communications during investigations into serious crimes, including terrorism.” “To address these issues, we committed to develop our engagement with communications and technology companies to explore shared solutions while upholding cybersecurity and individual rights and freedoms,” the communiqué said. The group said its role is “more relevant today than ever as we deal with the relentless threats of terrorism, violent extremism, cyber-attacks, and international instability.” Friday’s letter called for the protection of strong cryptography, which “demands an unequivocal rejection of laws, policies, or other mandates or practices — including secret agreements with companies — that limit access to or undermine encryption and other secure communications tools and technologies.” It said attempts to obtain information, including through engineering backdoors or requiring companies to preserve the ability to decrypt user data, are “shortsighted and counterproductive,” adding malicious adversaries “will simply switch to tools crafted in foreign jurisdictions” or through black markets if access to strong encryption is restricted in the Five Eyes countries. Last year, Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp messaging service began using end-to-end encryption for all communications going through the service, effectively limiting messages to the eyes of the sender and receiver. However, those initiatives have come under scrutiny from governments, including from the United Kingdom following a terror attack outside of the British parliament this year. It said WhatsApp was no place for terrorists to hide and asked communications companies to cooperate with it. Last year, Apple Inc. refused a request from the United States government to create a backdoor into a phone linked to a December 2015 attack in California. The FBI eventually obtained access to the phone through other means. In preparation for a consultation on Canada’s national security framework review, a 2016 background document, known as a green paper, noted investigators were being frustrated by “slow and inconsistent access to basic subscriber information” and advanced encryption techniques. Canada’s privacy watchdogs suggested at the time that the government did not make its case for why law enforcement and intelligence agencies need stronger powers to intercept, decrypt and share citizens’ information. Last week’s newly proposed national security legislation, Bill C-59, did not wade into the lawful access issue. In a blog post after the legislation was unveiled, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist said by leaving out issues like encryption, the government, civil society and law enforcement “continue to struggle to find common ground that would both address law enforcement concerns and remain consistent with the Supreme Court of Canada’s Spencer decision,” which required law enforcement to obtain a warrant to get Internet service providers’ customer information. Earlier this year, the House of Commons’ national security committee said they weren’t compelled to increase law enforcement’s ability to obtain subscriber data. “While the challenges of modern day security are real, such proposals threaten the integrity and security of general purpose communications tools relied upon by international commerce, the free press, governments, human rights advocates, and individuals around the world,” the Friday letter said. The letter comes after four of the world’s largest technology companies — Facebook, Microsoft Corp., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc. — this week announced that they were co-operating and sharing knowledge and technology to combat terrorism online. Five Eyes praised the initiative. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

Civil society groups take aim at Five Eyes on encryption

News | 06/30/2017 3:51 pm EDT

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