Encrypted messaging is great for those who value their privacy and don’t want others prying or spying on what they do. However recently British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke out against encrypted messaging apps, going as far as threatening to ban such apps. His statement was made in the aftermath of the Paris shootings where he felt that encrypted messages could facilitate future plots and that there would be nothing the authorities could do about it.
That being said, President Obama has recently weighed in on the issue as well, but unlike Cameron, Obama has has spoken up in defense of such technology, albeit with a slight caveat. According to Obama, he advocates that such technology should exist except that there should be a way for law enforcement officials to be able to decrypt these messages in the event of an emergency.
He was quoted as saying, “If we find evidence of a terrorist plot…and despite having a phone number, despite having a social media address or email address, we can’t penetrate that, that’s a problem.” This is in line with what law enforcement officials have requested from companies like Apple and Google in the past, where only the “good guys” would have access to the keys.
However previously there have been examples in which backdoors installed for the greater good have ended up being exploited by hackers, such as in Greece and China where hackers took advantage of the system and managed to intercept calls and hack into Gmail accounts.
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