{"id":37609,"date":"2020-10-11T23:51:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-11T23:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/five-eyes-nations-plus-japan-and-india-call-for-big-tech-to-bake-backdoors-into-everything\/"},"modified":"2020-10-11T23:51:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-11T23:51:09","slug":"five-eyes-nations-plus-japan-and-india-call-for-big-tech-to-bake-backdoors-into-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/five-eyes-nations-plus-japan-and-india-call-for-big-tech-to-bake-backdoors-into-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Eyes nations plus Japan and India call for Big Tech to bake backdoors into everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

The nations of the Five Eyes security alliance \u2013 Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the UK \u2013 plus Japan and India, have called on technology companies to design their products so they offer access to encrypted messages and content.<\/p>\n

A joint \u201cInternational Statement\u201d<\/a> issued on Sunday frames the issue as a matter of public safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, the undersigned, support strong encryption, which plays a crucial role in protecting personal data, privacy, intellectual property, trade secrets and cyber security,\u201d the Statement commences, adding: \u201cEncryption is an existential anchor of trust in the digital world and we do not support counter-productive and dangerous approaches that would materially weaken or limit security systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Embed the safety of the public in system designs, thereby enabling companies to act against illegal content and activity effectively with no reduction to safety<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But the Statement also says: \u201cParticular implementations of encryption technology \u2026 pose significant challenges to public safety, including to highly vulnerable members of our societies like sexually exploited children.\u201d The document then quotes statistics about the extent of child exploitation activity online and asserts that if law enforcement agencies can be allowed to view encrypted communications, it will enhance public safety.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the public that is at risk, the statement argues. Technology companies themselves may not be able to \u201cidentify and respond to violations of their terms of service\u201d or respond to \u201cthe most serious illegal content and activity on its platform, including child sexual exploitation and abuse, violent crime, terrorist propaganda and attack planning\u201d.<\/p>\n

Which is why the seven signatories to the Statement \u201curge industry to address our serious concerns where encryption is applied in a way that wholly precludes any legal access to content\u201d. And they suggest this can be done in the following three ways:<\/p>\n