Encryption Backdoors to Be Forced By Five Eyes Nations

• Governments of Five Eyes nations are trying to force technology providers to create backdoors for encrypted communications.
• The decision was made during the Five Country Ministerial meeting last week.
• The Security and Immigration Ministers proposal was to combat terrorism and crime.

Technology providers in Five Eyes nations Australia, US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, may soon be forced to create backdoors for any encrypted communication by users. The governments of the countries came to the joint decision and submitted a proposal for backdoor implementation in the Five Country Ministerial meeting last week.

If implemented, the countries will be required to share intelligence with each other as part of the Five Eyes umbrella Agreement. The proposal seeks to “encourage information and communications technology service providers to voluntarily establish lawful access solutions to their products and services."

The joint statement released by the Five Eyes nations states that if the governments encounter any form of impediments to lawful access from the technology providers, legal action may be taken and backdoor implementation may be forcefully implemented. There are rights to privacy implemented in all of the member countries, but despite the laws, the new proposal going into effect may mean that online privacy is a thing of the past.

The governments have also chosen not to specify how they will be monitoring user data and implement communication interception. Since the Five Eyes umbrella agreement was made, there has been a decent amount of criticism and concerns raised by internet users. Similar laws could go into effect in totalitarian countries all over the world and rights to privacy may be breached by the governments themselves.

The proposal requires the tech companies to implement human and automated systems to develop the backdoors and allow the governments complete access to user data as and when asked. While encryption backdoors can allow governments to crack down on crime, it can also lead to hackers exploiting the backdoors to steal user data.

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