The Dark Side of Encryption

The unspeakable events that occurred on September 11, 2001 in the U.S. led to a war on terrorism. In the back of the picture sits the war on encryption.

Many in the U.S. government and other organizations argue that all domestic encryption products should include backdoors that would give certain government agents the ability to decrypt. Indeed, the arguments continue. Encryption should not hinder law enforcement and military's ability to maintain good intelligence. On the other hand, clear reason tells us that this is in direct opposition to encryption's purpose of maintaining personal security and privacy. It also seems contradictory to the basic American values of freedom and privacy.

In a speech on the tragic events, U.S. Senator Judd Gregg encouraged international, global requirements prohibiting encryption products built without backdoors for government access. Arguing that these laws are necessary to combat terrorism and other criminals who use encryption to make their communications unintelligible to outsiders, some citizens agree with Gregg. Indeed, some of these same groups think that many tools people use to protect privacy online, such as anonymizers, should also be banned.

On the flip side, many citizens oppose this view, arguing that a free society has the right to privacy through encryption that has not been backdoored. Taking this right away conjures many unpleasant thoughts and stirs stories of George Orwell's book 1984. Indeed, many would think such laws would only trample on individual privacy for law-abiding citizens, when criminals and wealthy terrorists would just get their own non-backdoored encryption software anyway. If the effort were not worldwide, the U.S. would outlaw encryption without backdoors, whereas other countries would still make encryption products that were not backdoored. These products could easily be obtained and used by criminals and terrorists, and possibly even smuggled into the United States.

A Wired article by Declan McCullagh describes some of these events, quoting leaders on both sides of the argument, and encouraging readers to think clearly about the issues at hand. Read the article, “Congress Mulls Stiff Crypto Laws,” at http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46816,00.html.

Indeed, terrorists and criminals can use encryption technology to scramble their communications. However, normal people also use encryption to protect personal information and confidential transactions. Just as any tool can be used to build or destroy, protect or endanger, encryption is no different. It is up to us to protect the value of encryption and its use in our society for securing our information and transactions.