David Cameron has been asking for the support of Barack Obama in the field of online encryption. Since this can be the shelter of terrorist acts, UK Prime Minister regards encryption as a threat and requires the full co-operation of US Internet companies with the British intelligence.
It is no secret that UK Prime Minister David Cameron is planning to ban encryption that the GCHQ, the British security and intelligence organization, is not able to decrypt. In a recent speech of his, Cameron explained:
Are we going to allow a means of communication between people which even in extremist, with a signed warrant from the Home Secretary personally, that we cannot read? No, we must not. The first duty of any government is to keep our country and our people safe.
Of course, such intentions have not been well received by the public and therefore some sources from the British Government were prompt to claim that the words of the PM have been misinterpreted. However, now that Cameron is meeting with Obama, it is certain that he will ask for support to his campaign towards obliging Internet companies to co-operate with the British intelligence.
According to the Guardian, a governmental source has commented on the matter:
The Prime Minister’s objective here is to get the US companies to cooperate with us more, to make sure that our intelligence agencies get the information they need to keep us safe. That will be his approach in the discussion with President Obama – how can we work together to get them to cooperate more, what is the best approach to encourage them to do more.
In an article that both Cameron and Obama published for the Times, there have been references on terrorism and of course comments on the recent events in Paris with Charlie Hebdo. The article is titled: “Security and Prosperity Go Hand in Hand” and concludes with the following words:
By confronting the terrorists who threaten us, standing together against Russia’s aggressive acts and continuing our efforts to advance our economic growth, we will continue to advance the security and prosperity that our people deserve.
The recent calling to the US Internet companies, such as Facebook, Google and Apple, to lay a helping hand and prevent the spread of terrorist acts through strong encryption is in accordance with the statements of Robert Hannigan, the chief of GCHQ, from last November. Writing to the Financial Times, he had expressed similar thoughts:
However much they (meaning, the largest US technology companies which dominate the web) may dislike it, they have become the command-and-control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals, who find their services as transformational as the rest of us. If they are to meet this challenge, it means coming up with better arrangements for facilitating lawful investigation by security and law enforcement agencies than we have now.
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_at_the_G20_Summit_in_Toronto.jpg)