Australia’s top spy on Wednesday called on big tech companies to break a long-standing taboo in the industry by providing access to encrypted messages, pleading for more cooperation.
Mike Burgess, director of intelligence, said encrypting messages undermines the company’s ability to root out threats and said tech companies have an obligation to break the encryption if asked to do so.
“Without their cooperation in very limited and tightly controlled circumstances, encryption is not accountable,” said Mr Burgess of the Australian Security and Intelligence Agency.
Many technology platforms pride themselves on being able to guarantee privacy through encrypted messaging channels, and providing access to law enforcement has long been prohibited.
Companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft have rejected similar calls in the past, citing threats to cybersecurity and user privacy.
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“Encryption is clearly a good thing, and it’s good for our democracy and our economy,” Burgess said.
But it added: “We also protect terrorists, spies, saboteurs and abhorrent criminals.”
“I ask and urge technology companies to work with us to solve this challenge.
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“I’m not asking for new laws. I’m not asking for new powers. I’m asking technology companies to do more.”
Mr Burgess said intelligence agencies were currently investigating a “racist extremist network” using encrypted messaging.
“They are sharing vile propaganda, posting tips about homemade weapons, and discussing ways to spark a race war,” he said.
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Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw, speaking alongside Burgess, singled out Meta, which is rolling out end-to-end encryption for Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
End-to-end encryption prevents law enforcement from intercepting your messages. This means that only the sender and recipient can read the message content.
Mr Kershaw said this would seriously compromise the investigation and said the lack of co-operation with authorities was “disgraceful”.
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Apple particularly resisted legal efforts to weaken iPhone encryption to allow authorities to read messages from a suspect in the 2015 San Bernardino, California, bombing.
Law enforcement officials around the world say encryption can protect criminals, terrorists and pornographers, even if authorities have a legal warrant to search.
But civil rights and privacy advocates, along with cybersecurity experts, advocate encrypting data to protect it from unwarranted prying eyes by authorities and hackers.
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