Omand Warns of "Ethically Worse" Spying If Unbreakable Encryption Is Allowed

Press2ToContinue writes In their attempts to kill off strong encryption once and for all, top officials of the intelligence services are coming out with increasingly hyperbolic statements about why this should be done. Now, a former head of GCHQ, Sir David Omand has said: "One of the results of Snowden is that companies are now heavily encrypting [communications] end to end. Intelligence agencies are not going to give up trying to get the bad guys. They will have to get closer to the bad guys. I predict we will see more close access work." According to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which reported his words from a talk he gave earlier this week, by this he meant things like physical observation, bugging rooms, and breaking into phones or computers. "You can say that will be more targeted but in terms of intrusion into personal privacy — collateral intrusion into privacy — we are likely to end up in an ethically worse position than we were before." That's remarkable for its implied threat: if you don't let us ban or backdoor strong encryption, we're going to start breaking into your homes.

Comments

Re:They better be damn sure we're not home...

[OzPeter]

People in the South tend to have guns within reach at all times; what could possibly go wrong? :)

Apparently quite a lot if the rest of your education is as weak as your grasp of geopolitics and aristocracy. Sir David Omand and the GCHQ happen to reside on the other side of the pond.

Re:That's a nice democracy you have there...

[meta-monkey]

Now, boy, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.

Re:They better be damn sure we're not home...

[meta-monkey]

Sir David Omand and the GCHQ happen to reside on the other side of the pond.

And you think that's going to stop them?! Just let them Redcoats come back and try that shit in Alabama and we'll kick their asses again, just like we did in dubya-dubya-tew.