Pedrhom
Nafisi
ENC
1102
Dr.
Taylor
Initial Research Proposal
Encryption: Why it is Needed and Why Politics Think
Otherwise
With the acts of terrorism that has
occurred last year across the world such as the bombings of Paris and Lebanon,
many national governments including the United States are trying to minimize
terrorist communication by proposing an encryption ban. The government wants
the ability to track discourse between potentially threatening individuals that
converse over publicly used applications. A recent example of this includes a
case in which an ISIL-associated terrorist group was allegedly using a popular
mobile messaging application called WhatsApp along with encryption to talk in
secret (Goodnight) . As a reaction to
this and other cases, the government has begun to take action against
encryption and has tried to ban out the ability to use it with the
justification that encryption is for hackers and terrorists. The problem is
that banning encryption is not the correct path for the government to take as
encryption is needed in everyday internet security for businesses that want to
have secure data.
My goal in researching the topic of
encryption is to justify its legality and express how crucial it is for devices
and programs to have the ability to encrypt data to protect an individual’s
privacy. One article discusses that it is not harder for the FBI to track
criminal activity compared to fifteen years ago, data was still hidden on
private computers and unflagged phone calls could have a transcript not
available to the government (Brandom). In today’s world more information is
stored online and is equally as private as it was fifteen years ago and for the
government to want to be entitled to data based on the fact that information is
more accessible is unjustifiable. I am
also going to address the proposed ban on encryption that was created by
British Prime Minister David Cameron who wants to ban out messaging services
such as iMessage and Snapchat (Brown) . This issue is being
addressed by not only the government, but also by all cryptologists who are
professionals when it comes to encryption. They also agree that the course of
action of the government will not solve their problems and that removing
encryption makes the world less secure. A source I want to use for this topic
is a UCF staff member that is proficient in computer security and digital
forensics. I can interview the expert to get more insight behind encryption and
get their opinion about the topic of the government’s proposal on encryption.
More sources I can use are online news articles that critique what the
government is trying to do in regards to encryption and another source can be a
document that describes what society would be like if encryption was banned.
My research conducted so far has
given me support that removing encryption will be more destructive than
constructive in regards to security. Many individuals from bloggers to
cryptology experts are bashing the government’s plan as they all have seen the
faults that removing encryption can and will create. These articles show me
that my stance on this issue is supportable and tenable.
Bibliography:
Brown, Aaron. "WhatsApp BAN: Cameron's EU Referendum
will Decide Fate of Encrypted Messaging App." Sunday Express. 15
July 2015. Web. 14 Feburary 2016.
Goodnight, Eric Z. "What is Encryption, and Why Are People
Afraid of It?" 30 November 2015. Web. 14 Feburary 2016.
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