UK Government Wants Private Encryption Keys

An anonymous reader writes "Businesses and individuals in Britain may soon have to give their encryption keys to the police or face imprisonment. The UK government has said it will bring in the new powers to address a rise in the use of encryption by criminals and terrorists." From the article: "Some security experts are concerned that the plan could criminalise innocent people and drive businesses out of the UK. But the Home Office, which has just launched a consultation process, says the powers contained in Part 3 are needed to combat an increased use of encryption by criminals, paedophiles, and terrorists. 'The use of encryption is... proliferating,' Liam Byrne, Home Office minister of state told Parliament last week. 'Encryption products are more widely available and are integrated as security features in standard operating systems, so the Government has concluded that it is now right to implement the provisions of Part 3 of RIPA... which is not presently in force.'"

Comments

England Prevails

[zariok]

"England Prevails"

Parliment better watch out... hear there's a train heading there loaded with fireworks and other things that go boom.

Re:Brilliant idea...

[grub]

I'm sure the criminals, paedophiles, and terrorists will just be lining up to hand over their keys, too.

That's the odd thing about this. You can get up to 2 or 5 years in the can (depending on if they think you're a terrorist). So if you have gigs of terrorist info that could get you sent away for life, just say you lost your keys and go away for 5 years max.