Be Thankful for Encryption this Thanksgiving

Nearly every aspect of our daily lives now resides online, and we take for granted that the safety of our bank accounts, shopping, cars and even airplanes in the sky are protected from malicious attacks thanks to the security provided by encryption.

The usual suspects—Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Samsung and many more tech giants—all know the importance of this, which is why our messages on everyday services such as iMessage, WhatsApp or Messenger are all encrypted by default to preserve both our safety and security online.

In the wake of increasing terror attacks and threats to national security, we have witnessed knee-jerk reactions from authorities who appear to have a complete lack of understanding of the digital infrastructure on which we are all incredibly reliant.

For example, Clare Foges, a former speech writer for UK Prime Minister David Cameron, wrote a bizarre article that shows a distinct lack of understanding of the technology that protects our daily digital lives. Although tech lovers will be shaking with rage after reading the misinformation, you can be comforted by the poll at the end of the article where 92% disagree, while the rest of the internet ridiculed the author’s ignorance. It’s also interesting to point out that the terrorists who committed the atrocities in Paris were using the unencrypted technology and slightly dated SMS text message service.

Politicians, police and intelligence services would ideally like a secret back door to information that would weaken encryption while others naively announced that encryption should be banned, which is nothing short of ludicrous and something that cryptographers agree is pure fantasy. 

It is more than a little worrying that those seeking to defend our world from tyranny have a solution that consists of weakening security and thus creating vulnerabilities in the name of advancing our security. This makes little or no sense at all and would only make our national security even more exposed than it already is.

Encryption is somewhat of an unsung hero of this digital age, and there are a wealth of satirical articles that offer a vision of what our world would be forced to return to if it wasn’t for the security blanket that we take for granted.

Technology has now been simplified to such an extent that I wonder if this could be the first generation without any understanding of how our world works. We simply plug something in and expect it to work, but if anyone were to ask the intricacies of exactly how the device worked, most people would freely admit that they neither know nor care—after all, why should they when they just want it to work. 

The issues at hand are incredibly complex, and on one side tech companies’ livelihoods depend on customer trust for privacy, whereas law enforcement requires access to data to prevent a future attack by having a form of backdoor access to individuals who could have sinister plans in order to gather evidence and intelligence. 

However, we need to dispel this myth that encryption is both responsible for the recent attacks in Paris and any future incidents across the globe. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a secret back door for the good guys, and removing this security will not prevent future attacks but would actually remove a level of safety from our daily lives that makes little to no sense.

Encryption overwhelmingly offers law-abiding citizens a high degree of security and peace of mind and is seldom used as the sinister terrorist tool that many would have you believe. I cannot help but think that if we were to trade in our online privacy or safety and change our daily lives, we would be handing terrorists the victory they are so desperately seeking. 

On Thanksgiving Day, a day traditionally spent with our families and friends to be truly grateful for everything that we have, whether we are watching football or the Macy’s parade it is important to remember that how we record and share these memories via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and iMessage all require our under-appreciated friend #encryption. Also, it is important to remember that if we sacrifice our freedom and our lifestyle for something that will not even prevent future attacks, then the terrorists will truly win.

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