UK Net Firms Will Be Banned From Using Strong Encryption

[engine]

As usual, the poorly thought through proposal leaves the door open for hackers to extract data and potentially abuse it.

Companies such as Apple, Google and others will no longer be able to offer encryption so advanced that even they cannot decipher it when asked to under the Investigatory Powers Bill UK Net Firms Will Be Banned From Using Strong Encryption [telegraph.co.uk]

Measures in the Investigatory Powers Bill will place in law a requirement on tech firms and service providers to be able to provide unencrypted communications to the police or spy agencies if requested through a warrant.

[graeme_p]

And people who have something they really need to hide will simply use encryption and decryption on the client at each end - e.g. OTR over Jabber.

[engine]

Exactly!
Although this is early days in the bill, it's going forward to the next reading. What they really need it to consult from a range of aspects if they want to get it right. Despite that, I don't have a great deal of confidence they will get it right.

[IanTurner]

Also it will weaken defenses against state sponsored hacking - potentially putting UK firms at greater risk than some international competitors.