Policy Observatory

US Department of Justice thinks companies need to trust gov't on cybersecurity

Tue 9 Dec 2014, 22:20

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said that the fight against cybercrime would be more effective if private companies put more trust in the country's law enforcement agencies and if they engage more.

But DOJ calls for legislation to require mobile phone operating systems to include back doors in newly announced encryption tools may be a major stumbling block to additional cooperation. FBI Director James Comey raised concerns about law enforcement access to criminal evidence on smartphones after Apple and Google both announced encryption tools for their mobile operating systems.

Dean Garfield, CEO of tech trade group the Information Technology Industry Council, said the tech industry will oppose efforts to pass a law requiring a back door in encryption tools. Such regulations would be "incredibly disruptive in a negative way," he said.

Tags: mobile phones, private companies, engagement, trust, legislation, back doors, cybersecurity, privacy, smartphones, DOJ, US Department of Justice, FBI, Information Technology Industry Council, cooperation, law enforcement, encryption

China says new cybersurveillance proposal follows US security practices

Wed 4 Mar 2015, 14:20

On Wednesday, China’s parliamentary spokeswoman tried to play down the impact the proposed legislation might have on foreign tech businesses, in the face of U.S. fears it would require companies to hand over sensitive data to the country’s government.

The anti-terror law is still under review, but if passed, it would require tech companies to give encryption keys to the authorities, and create “back doors” into their systems for government surveillance access.

Tags: fundamental rights, back doors, tech companies, anti-terrorism, privacy, cybersecurity, surveillance, encryption

NSA revelations forced Google to lock down data

Fri 12 Dec 2014, 23:40

IT World reports that Google had envisioned a complicated method to sniff traffic, but reporters showed Google engineers a diagram of the UK's intelligence agency methods to tap links between Google data centers.

Chris Soghoian, principal technologist with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that Chrome’s incognito feature will “do nothing” to protect users from government surveillance. Google's Chairman Eric Schmidt said the company complies with legal law enforcement requests and retains user data for a year because of government mandates.

Tags: traffic interception, intelligence agency, law enforcement, Google, NSA, GCHQ, Snowden revelations, data retention, back doors, surveillance