Contro una direttiva ad hoc sull’encryption

di giovedì, Settembre 15, 2016 0 , , Permalink

Il 13 settembre, nel corso della Plenaria a Strasburgo, il Parlamento europeo ha nominato Julian King Commissario europeo per l’Unione della Sicurezza con 394 voti a favore, 161 contrari e 83 astenuti. Riportiamo le due risposte del Commissario Julian King alle domande di Barbara Spinelli e di Péter Niedermüller sulla direttiva sull’encryption, rivolte nel corso dell’audizione del 12 settembre.in Commissione Libertà Civili, Giustizia e Affari Interni (LIBE).

Domanda di Barbara Spinelli: Il 23 Agosto scorso, i ministri dell’Interno di Francia e Germania hanno annunciato che al vertice di Bratislava chiederanno alla Commissione, e dunque a lei, Sir Julian King, una direttiva sull’encryption. La direttiva obbligherebbe compagnie come WhatsApp o Telegram a indebolire gli standard di cifratura e/o a istituire “back door” per l’accesso delle forze di polizia ai dati personali.

Tale proposta è stata criticata dai sostenitori della privacy e dal CNIL, l’autorità francese di protezione dati. La tesi da essi sostenuta è che togliere la cifratura espone i cittadini a rischi di hacking e di altre forme di terrorismo, più di quanto minacci i terroristi.

Ecco, quindi, le domande che vorrei porle: che tipo di garanzie si intende fornire a salvaguardia della privacy e della sicurezza dei cittadini? Non crede  che il terrorista aggirerà l’ostacolo usando o creando app alternative?

Risposta di Julian King: Thank you, and thank you for raising such an important subject. The internet, as the last few questions make very clear, is absolutely central to our lives – the conduct of our lives and all aspects of our lives, including our private lives – and we should be entitled to privacy in the online world as we are in the offline world. Encryption, for secure communication, is part of that world and is part of the privacy that all citizens should be able to enjoy in that world. It is also the case that some very bad people use encryption, including terrorists. Indeed, in the attack that was recently foiled in France, a well-known encryption device had been used to help its planning. Not just terrorists, however, but also paedophiles and other criminals are using encryption. So there is no easy answer.

I am not convinced that there is a sort of silver bullet. Personally speaking, I am not convinced that some kind of systematic process of introducing ‘backdoors’ would make us all safer. I think, as you say, that it risks introducing systemic weaknesses, which could be used against us, as well as by all sorts of third parties – so this is not a simple subject. I am very glad that we have the Internet Forum as a group of experts, including both Member State representatives and practitioners, who can look at this subject. I will certainly be encouraging them to do so and to offer us some recommendations which I would be happy to discuss further with you.

Risposta di Julian King alla domanda di Péter Niedermüller (S&D – Ungheria): I think encryption is a key part of the online world: it serves very good purposes, preserving our privacy. It’s also misused by terrorists, criminals and paedophiles. There’s no easy answer or silver bullet about what to do to stop that, and I want to have an expert dialogue with the internet service providers and others, to come forward with some ideas for discussion – I don’t think we’ll be able to move anywhere near straight to any recommendations.