Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

EU report condemns law enforcement backdoors in consumer electronics

Jayce Wagner
By

enisa encryption report condemns backdoors protects your most private data
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) released a new report on encryption today, which argues strongly against law enforcement’s uses of, or requests for, backdoors in consumer electronics. The report concludes that the inclusion of such backdoors in consumer electronics puts regular citizens at substantial risk, and may even undermine national security.

As Tom’s Hardware reports, ENISA goes on to suggest that backdoors required by one nation’s laws could very well be exploited by a rival nation, effectively giving a national actor access to thousands or even millions of backdoored consumer devices. The benefits, ENISA states, simply do not outweigh the substantial risks that backdoors pose to public safety and national security.

Recommended Videos

Speaking specifically to the public safety risks, the report goes on to suggest that backdoors are not only dangerous but dangerously ineffective. Government or law enforcement mandated backdoors are designed to provide a way into secured electronics seized from criminals, as a way to circumvent consumer-grade security in an emergency. ENISA cautions against such thinking, stating that criminals would simply make use of non-backdoored technology to get around government-mandated backdoors.

Related

Just this year, the conflict between public safety and privacy was highlighted when the FBI requested Apple’s help in unlocking the San Bernardino, California shooter’s iPhone. At the time Apple cautioned against such a request, suggesting that a backdoor for law enforcement could just as easily become a backdoor for criminals. Today ENISA echoes those concerns.

“Limiting the use of cryptographic tools will create vulnerabilities that can in turn be used by terrorists and criminals, and lower trust in electronic services, which will eventually damage industry and civil society,” the report warns.

The ENISA report is not unsympathetic to law enforcement’s encryption dilemma, and recognizes the difficult position law enforcement agencies are in with regard to strong encryption being used by criminals. But, the European Union agency cautions, weakening encryption or backdooring consumer electronics will only create more vulnerabilities in the long run.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jayce Wagner
Jayce Wagner
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A staff writer for the Computing section, Jayce covers a little bit of everything -- hardware, gaming, and occasionally VR.
How to delete or hide chats in Microsoft Teams
Running Microsoft Teams on the Galaxy Tab S8.

Microsoft Teams is a terrific workplace platform for keeping the camaraderie strong. Featuring collaborative messaging, video conferencing, and file-sharing tools, it’s your one-stop-shop for in-office, hybrid and at-home workers alike. But anyone with a long history of using Teams will tell you how clogged up your message stockpile can get. Fortunately, deleting and hiding these exchanges is relatively easy to do, and we’ve put together this guide to help.

Read more
Why Llama 3 is changing everything in the world of AI
Meta AI on mobile and desktop web interface.

In the world of AI, you've no doubt heard about what OpenAI and Google have been up to. And now, Meta's Llama LLM (large language model) is becoming an increasingly important player in the game, especially with its open-source nature. Meta recently made a big splash with the launch of its Llama 3 AI model, and it's shaken up the field dramatically.

The reasons why are multiple and varied. It's free to use, it has a wide user base, and yes, it's open source, to name but a few. Here's why Llama 3 is taking the AI industry by storm and may shape its future for some time to come.
Llama 3 is really good
We can debate until the cows come home about how useful AIs like ChatGPT and Llama 3 are in the real world -- they're not bad at teaching you board game rules -- but the few benchmarks we have for how capable these AI are give Llama 3 a distinct advantage.

Read more
How to delete messages on your Mac
A MacBook and iPhone in shadow on a surface.

Apple likes to make things easy for its iPhone, iPad, and macOS devotees. When signed in with the same Apple ID on more than one of these devices, you’ll be able to sync your messages from one Apple product to the next. This means when you get a text on your iPhone, you’ll be able to pull it up through the Messages app on your Mac desktop.

Read more