UK’s new security law will make life less secure
@ 2023/07/07Risk to security technologies
The UK government’s draft Online Safety Bill is so bad that it will actually make life a lot less safe for the country’s internet users.
More than 70 IT security and privacy academics are warning about the damage the UK's Online Safety Bill unless it's amended to ensure it does not undermine strong encryption.
Affiliated security and privacy researchers have warned the draft legislation poses a stark risk to essential security technologies that are routinely used to keep digital communications safe.
"As independent information security and cryptography researchers, we build technologies that keep people safe online. It is in this capacity that we see the need to stress that the safety provided by these essential technologies is now under threat in the Online Safety Bill," the academics warn, echoing concerns already expressed by end-to-end encrypted comms services such as WhatsApp, Signal and Element -- which have said they would opt to withdraw services from the market or be blocked by UK authorities rather than compromise the level of security provided to their users.
The UK government’s draft Online Safety Bill is so bad that it will actually make life a lot less safe for the country’s internet users.
More than 70 IT security and privacy academics are warning about the damage the UK's Online Safety Bill unless it's amended to ensure it does not undermine strong encryption.
Affiliated security and privacy researchers have warned the draft legislation poses a stark risk to essential security technologies that are routinely used to keep digital communications safe.
"As independent information security and cryptography researchers, we build technologies that keep people safe online. It is in this capacity that we see the need to stress that the safety provided by these essential technologies is now under threat in the Online Safety Bill," the academics warn, echoing concerns already expressed by end-to-end encrypted comms services such as WhatsApp, Signal and Element -- which have said they would opt to withdraw services from the market or be blocked by UK authorities rather than compromise the level of security provided to their users.