“In the European Commission we never had, and we don’t have, any kind of plans to create back doors,” European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip, told the European Parliament.
“We don’t want to destroy people’s trust by creating some back doors,” he said, adding that if there were back doors then sooner or later somebody would misuse them.
In the UK, Prime Minister David Cameron has floated a similar idea that could lead to banning encrypted online messaging services such as WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage in an effort to fight terrorism.
While the White House’s cybersecurity coordinator said in March that there are no plans to weaken encryption in the US, Obama said in January that encryption should not lock out police and intelligence services.
Ansip was responding to worries voiced by Kaja Kallas, an Estonian Member of the European Parliament (MEP). “People trust each other more than ever by sharing their cars, by sharing their flats, but also by sharing content and accessing content online. But they also need to know their communication is secure,” she told Ansip, adding that back doors in encryption software would greatly undermine the trust in e-commerce and the economy overall.
Kallas made her remarks during a debate about the plans for a digital single market in Europe that the Commission unveiled on 6 May.
If encryption workarounds were required, law enforcement agencies would be able to easily access communications. The European Union’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinator advised the Commission in January to oblige internet and communications companies to hand over their encryption keys to provide law enforcers with an additional tool to fight crime and terrorism.
In the US, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has asked the US Congress to make encryption back doors in mobile devices mandatory to help fight crime.
Apple, Google and other big technology companies have urged US President Barack Obama to reject the proposals for encryption back doors.
Strong encryption is the cornerstone of the modern information economy’s security, the companies told Obama in a letter quoted from by the Washington Post, in which they also said that protecting privacy and limiting law enforcement access to encrypted data is important.
IDG News Service
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