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Did Brussels’s tragedy explode the encryption can too?

Worms may not be crawling out yet, but debates and questions about everything ranging from the basic to the extremely futuristic flavor of encryption have started popping fast. Here’s how.

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Pratima Harigunani
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INDIA: How does this happen in an age where technology is so advanced that Snowden becomes a sensation, that the Apple-FBI battle surprises with unexpected twists, that people suddenly start waking up to the right to privacy and that marketers pre-empt us with offers thanks to all the eavesdropping they can do online.

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But it does, and world’s top experts, investigators, activists and law-enforcers are breaking a sweat to suss that out.

This is where when the oft-taken-for-granted word ‘encryption’ assumes new proportions and dimensions altogether. It suddenly stands up from the background of everyday life, business and governance and starts walking towards the centre-stage.

Attacks like the ones in Paris, or the recent one in Brussels have on one hand equipped some politicians with one more reason to thump their fists strongly for backdoor encryption. Yet, on the other hand, they have raised questions about the very relevance of encryption (as available today) in the first place.

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Reports and rumors have blossomed well around the idea that attackers might have actually started communicating through unencrypted means to ensure wiping any evidence or digital breadcrumbs whatsoever.

Well-known Cyber Law expert and Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Pavan Duggal observes the trail sharply as he points out that incidents like Brussels are as much a handicraft of cyber terrorism as that of physical one. “The problem gets confounded with a new elephant in the room that most people do not want to confront – The dark Net that helps hide identities, like Tor. China displayed a new stance when it modified national security as per these new shifts strongly in 2015. India has a very wait-and-decide approach and a little conservative one. The problem gets serious when policy or on-paper postures do not get implemented well. It’s here where one gets more clueless and challenged when people start bypassing lot of familiar roads and use anonymity. Breaches and crime are undergoing a new change.”

One heard Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) stating after the recent attacks that: “We do not know yet what role, if any, encrypted communications played in these attacks.”

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Investigators after all have been pursuing both the routes – the one sniffing for device-tracking, real people networks, informants, wiretaps, as well as tech-starred ones.

Satellite phones, tools like Tor, the dark networks, face-to-face communication, disposable devices, burner phones etc could be replacing social networks, smart phones, GPS tools, email, messaging apps, online techniques etc as attackers get savvy with how technology is turning edgier.

Or not?

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May be this is a time when unbreakable encryption should start manifesting strongly in real applications.

Incidentally, the Apple-FBI wrestling-game is bringing in new precedents to the very subject. Privacy vs. national security is now being examined in a new light.

“We have to realize the golden balance between privacy and other issues. This case is not just a test case but a bigger question about how much can the government move when it comes to national security-related backdoor snooping. We will have to wait and watch how that unfolds. But national security often has a superseding effect over other factors. The direction is towards more disclosure and less privacy if such big questions come up. The recent Aadhar Bill, for instance, reminds just that – in circumstances of national security, there should be no barriers to disclosure of information about an individual.” Duggal reasons.

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All in all, these are times when the contours are re-shaping in a profound and defining way for technology’s experience or privacy-aspects and technology’s facets around security, fighting crime and empowering counter-terrorism.

Duggal admires the bilateral arrangements that countries like UK-India, UK-China have started experimenting in the war against cyber-terrorism. “These are times of cyber-terrorism and cyber-radicalisation. Co-operation has to move towards not just exchanging information better and faster but also towards working together in this war.”

In other words, we can't kick the can down the road indefinitely anymore.

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