Why Do Governments and Security Agencies Want the Ability to Bypass Encryption?

Security breaches are making encryption more important than ever. It isn’t just important to businesses, but it is becoming a method of defense for individuals to keep their information private when communicating over email or anywhere on the internet. However, there are governments and security agencies working hard to bypass encryption in an attempt to access personal and corporate data whenever they want.

The Washington Post reported that government organizations and other federal agencies are debating over whether tech companies should hand over the keys to the secret backdoors that keep private and proprietary information secure. If tech companies did this, federal agencies and law enforcement would be able to bypass encryption so they could look at telephone calls, text messages, emails, and other forms of communication.

The Purpose of Desiring to Bypass Encryption

Government agencies believe that encryption technology increases the terror risk of the country. The theory that these agencies have is that it is a roadblock in national security investigations. Instead, it wants a method in which a business and the government would share a decryption key. Giving the key to a third-party organization has also been proposed.

The simple desire of the government to bypass encryption is unsettling to many people. Most people don’t have anything to hide, but it’s the principle of privacy. There is also the fact that the government being given access could result in weaknesses that could leave encryption vulnerable to hackers. Preserving the integrity of encryption is important to the entire internet.

Dispelling Decryption Rumors

In a 9,000-page data dump done by Wikileaks, there was information about all the hacking tools used by the CIA. However, there was a misconception that the CIA could compromise the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, and other chat apps that use encryption. A thorough inspection of the documents shows that Wikileaks never said that the CIA had that capability. In fact, the documents state that the CIA hasn’t yet cracked the encryption of these apps.

How did the rumor start? It was due to a poorly worded or purposely misleading tweet by Wikileaks that said the CIA could crack Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Confide. The fact that the CIA hasn’t cracked this yet means that encrypted email hasn’t been hacked either. Remember, governments are trying to get access, which means they don’t have it yet. If governments and security agencies ever do get access, it will most likely come with very strict conditions. Then again, access may never be given. This is something that is unpredictable since government agencies have been seeking access for the better part of the last decade.

All in all, encryption is a very big deal to many people. In fact, you are already using many encrypted services. There are so many and privacy is such an issue that there isn’t yet any proposed legislation to bypass encryption.

If you are ready to secure your email, Secure Swiss Data has mobile apps and a web-based email that protects your sensitive information and gives you peace of mind. Whether you need encrypted email for individual or business purposes, Secure Swiss Data has a solution.