National Crime Agency warns against end-to-end encryption putting users at risk
The head of Britain’s National Crime Agency has joined more than 30 European police chiefs in calling for end-to-end encryption to be halted.
The director general of Britain’s National Crime Agency, Graeme Biggar, has joined more than 30 European police chiefs in calling on governments to take steps to halt the rollout of end-to-end encryption.
Mr. Biggar said: “Encryption can be hugely beneficial, protecting users from a range of crimes. But the blunt and increasingly widespread rollout by major tech companies of end-to-end encryption, without sufficient consideration for public safety, is putting users in danger.”
After a meeting in London, 32 European police chiefs agreed a statement expressing their “deep concern” about the way end-to-end encryption is being rolled out by Big Tech.
The declaration came after technology companies like Meta moved ahead with plans to implement end-to-end encryption across their platforms.
Mr. Biggar said: “They cannot protect their customers as they are no longer able see illegal behavior on their own systems. Child abuse does not stop just because companies choose to stop looking.”
Mr. Biggar and the executive director of Europol, Catherine De Bolle, both emphasized how important it was that technology companies continue to allow law enforcement to access data to enable them to prevent and investigate crime.
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They also want operating systems, devices, and apps to be “safe by design.”
The NCA said it is worried end-to-end encryption will be used by criminals involved in child sexual abuse, human trafficking, drug smuggling, terrorism, and contract killing.
Mr. Biggar said, “These changes are also making it harder for us to investigate serious crime and protect the public, as the companies are less able to act on a warrant and provide us with the data of suspected criminals.”
‘Privacy and Public Safety Need Not Be Mutually Exclusive’
“Privacy and public safety need not be mutually exclusive. Solutions need to be found that deliver both. We all have a responsibility to ensure that those who seek to abuse these platforms are identified and caught, and that platforms become more safe, not less. We cannot let ourselves be blinded to crime,” he added.
Ms. De Bolle said: “Our homes are becoming more dangerous than our streets as crime is moving online. To keep our society and people safe, we need this digital environment to be secured.”
“Tech companies have a social responsibility to develop a safer environment where law enforcement and justice can do their work. If police lose the ability to collect evidence, our society will not be able to protect people from becoming victims of crime,” she added.
The NCA and UK police forces said 1,200 children have been safeguarded and 800 suspects arrested every month as a result of social media companies proactively reporting suspected instances of child sexual abuse.
The NCA said 92 percent of such tip-offs to UK police from Facebook and 85 percent from Instagram would be barred by end-to-end encryption.
The NCA said in a statement released on Sunday, “One example of what would be lost is a recent 200-page referral on an international sextortion case, which identified multiple suspect accounts purporting to be females to entice young boys in the UK and overseas to share indecent images and videos of themselves, with a view to financially blackmailing them.”
Law enforcement is increased concerned because information can be hidden by end-to-end encryption so that even the company responsible for transporting the messages cannot access it.
Data From Tech Companies Led to 327 Arrests
The NCA said, “As a result of one stream of data provided by tech companies in response to warrants, the NCA produced intelligence that led to 327 arrests, the seizure of 3.5 tonnes of Class A drugs, the recovery of £4.8 million, the identification of 29 previously unknown threats to life, and a further 100 threats to harm, between January and March this year.”
The decision was welcomed by Tim Weiss, managing director of London-based DigitalBankVault.com, who said it was not just criminals who used encryption.
He said at the time businessmen, journalists, human rights activists, whistleblowers and even police informants need encryption and said it was the only way they could “safeguard their communications.”
