Security News > 2022 > July > British intelligence recycles old argument for thwarting strong encryption: Think of the children!

Two notorious characters from the British security services have published a paper that once again suggests breaking end-to-end encryption would be a good thing for society.

Nearly four years ago Ian Levy, technical director of the UK National Cyber Security Centre, along with technical director for cryptanalysis at the British spy agency GCHQ Crispin Robinson, published a paper arguing for "Virtual crocodile clips" on encrypted communications that could be used to keep us all safe from harm.

"We have not identified any techniques that are likely to provide as accurate detection of child sexual abuse material as scanning of content, and whilst the privacy considerations that this type of technology raises must not be disregarded, we have presented arguments that suggest that it should be possible to deploy in configurations that mitigate many of the more serious privacy concerns."

The same argument has been used many times before, usually against one of the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, child sexual abuse material, and organized crime.

It's not a new argument, and has been used again and again in the conflict between encryption advocates who like private conversations and governments that don't.

This is an old, old argument - as old as encryption itself.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/07/22/british_encryption_scanning/