Just recently after the London terrorist attack, the UK–under Theresa May, has been making a huge wave about controlling the internet and attacking encryption to prevent hidden terrorist communication. May thinks that encryption and internet services are providing breeding grounds for terrorist activity.
“We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed. Yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services, provide. We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorist planning. And we need to do everything we can at home to reduce the risks of extremism online.”
May plans to regulate and control the internet which will have drastic effects on businesses and user privacy. If she bans end-to-end encryption and makes surveillance even more powerful, things could be very dour indeed. However, the UK’s Theresa May isn’t the only enemy of encryption out there.
Australia Also wants to End Encyption
Yesterday, Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull joined may in her fight to stop encrypted communications. Turnbull thinks that there is too much terrorist-sympathy, and that there is too much tolerance for extremist activity on the internet. In the end, Turnbull thinks that access to encrypted communication servers is mandatory.
“We need these global social media messaging companies to assist in providing access to encrypted communications… The security services need to get access to them,” he said, agreeing with May who spoke the day before.
These arguments seem valid at first glance–because who doesn’t want to prevent terrorism, but access to encrypted services would make encryption vulnerable, and it would only be a matter of time before hackers get these tools and exploit the encryption from the government side. Cryptographic tools are not just tools for hackers or terrorists, but also tools used by government websites, shopping, and consumer banking.
Ending Privacy a Dream or Reality?
May is responsible for the Investigatory Powers Act in the UK, and Australia has enacted similar powers in the Telecommunications Amendment Bill. Both of these laws retain user data collected from ISPs so the governments and various agencies can examine and store it. Seeing these two large countries take a similar path towards ending encryption sets a dangerous precedent, especially since the US doesn’t seem to be faring better, with the president abolishing nation-wide privacy regulations in one fell swoop, giving power to ISPs to collect and use consumer data at their own volition.
Saying you want to regulate encryption is one thing, however accomplishing this objective can prove near impossible. Sure, the UK government can push for backdoor access in popular messaging apps, but this won’t prevent people from switching over to free and un regulated, open source encryption messaging tools.
While it is unfortunate to see internet privacy attacked at such a large scale, TorGuard VPN can help reclaim your internet privacy. We utilize open source VPN protocols like OpenVPN and OpenConnect that cannot be cracked or deciphered. TorGuard’s Australia VPN services use the highest levels of 256-AES encryption, and consistent updates to our security to ensure your user data and privacy is always 100% guaranteed.
