WASHINGTON – The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the global voice of the tech sector, released the following statement today from President and CEO Dean Garfield responding to calls to weaken encryption security tools:
“Encryption is a security tool we rely on everyday to stop criminals from draining our bank accounts, to shield our cars and airplanes from being taken over by malicious hacks, and to otherwise preserve our security and safety. We deeply appreciate law enforcement's and the national security community’s work to protect us, but weakening encryption or creating backdoors to encrypted devices and data for use by the good guys would actually create vulnerabilities to be exploited by the bad guys, which would almost certainly cause serious physical and financial harm across our society and our economy. Weakening security with the aim of advancing security simply does not make sense.”
In a letter to President Barack Obama in July, ITI warned U.S. administration officials about the risks that weakening encryption technology would pose to security, commerce, and the economy.
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