The Cybersecurity Advisors Network (CyAN) is joining 81 individual cybersecurity experts and organisations in signing the Global Encryption Coalition’s open letter against Belgium’s Data Retention Legislation.
The Data Retention Legislation requires encrypted systems operators to allow law enforcement access to content from specific users upon request. These businesses will effectively be forced to implement encryption backdoors into their systems on request.
Cybersecurity experts agree that there is no way to provide third party access to end-to-end encrypted communications without creating backdoors and vulnerabilities that can be exploited by all those who find them. The result of this is the weakening of the whole system, potentially exposing Belgians of every profession and level of society.
For these reasons, CyAN has signed the Global Encryption Coalition’s open letter calling on the Belgian government to drop law enforcement access requirements in its Data Retention Legislation. The safety of Belgians must not come at the cost of undermining end-to-end encryption and, therefore, the protections and privacies that we all rely on to live our daily lives.