Security News > 2021 > January > Encrypted Services Providers Concerned About EU Proposal for Encryption Backdoors
European encrypted services providers ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota on Thursday urged European Union policy makers to rethink plans that would require the implementation of encryption backdoors.
The Council of the European Union in December adopted a resolution on "Security through encryption and security despite encryption." The council said it supports the development and use of strong encryption to protect citizens and organizations, but at the same time it believes law enforcement and judicial authorities need to be able to exercise their legal powers.
There has been a lot of discussion over the past years about finding a balance between providing strong encryption to users while also enabling law enforcement to access encrypted communications and data during their investigations.
While policymakers around the world are convinced that such a balance can somehow be achieved, tech companies say it's impossible, as it would require the implementation of encryption backdoors that could be leveraged not only by law enforcement, but also by bad actors.
"Whilst it's not explicitly stated in the resolution, it's widely understood that the proposal seeks to allow law enforcement access to encrypted platforms via backdoors. However, the resolution makes a fundamental misunderstanding: encryption is an absolute, data is either encrypted or it isn't, users have privacy or they don't," said Tresorit, which provides end-to-end encrypted cloud storage for businesses.
"With the latest attempt to backdoor encryption, politicians want an easier way to prevent crimes such as terrorist attacks while disregarding an entire range of other crimes that encryption protects us from: End-to-end encryption protects our data and communication against eavesdroppers such as hackers, governments, and terrorists. By demanding encryption backdoors, politicians are not asking us to choose between security and privacy. They are asking us to choose no security," Möhle said.