UK Government Considers its Options in Forcing Disclosure of Encryption

In order to give the police stronger tools against terrorism and pornography, a relatively obscure piece of British legislation may soon be implemented to force decryption of information. In 2000, the British Government enacted the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). Part Three of RIPA, not yet implemented, includes a power to force the disclosure of information stored in an encrypted form, including the disclosure of the encryption key itself. Only now is the Home Office initiating a consultation process to determine whether to implement Part Three in its present form or to consider amendments. Initially, encryption was rarely used except by governments but it has now become much more common in commerce in order to improve data security. In particular, financial institutions are major users of encryption techniques to conceal account numbers and amounts in the data they transmit. If the proposed legislation is adopted without amendment, this raises the prospect that some companies, especially financial institutions, may choose data haven jurisdictions to avoid being subject to decryption orders. For a recent news report, see: http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6073654.html Summary by: Oren Weichenberg