Encryption & terroristsEncryption firm tightens access following Paris attacks
Encrypted communications specialist Silent Circle, after learning that ISIS was recommending two of the company’s products — the encrypted Blackphone handset and Silent Phone applications for private messaging — to the organization’s followers, is taking steps to make it more difficult for terrorists and their followers to use these products.
On Thursday, encrypted communications specialist Silent Circle said that in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, it was tightening access to its mobile apps and secure smartphone to make it more difficult for terrorists and criminals to use them.
The company’s two products — the encrypted Blackphone handset and Silent Phone applications for private messaging – gained in popularity after the Edward Snowden leaks revealed the scope of the NSA’s bulk data collection program. Yahoo News reports that the company said it was taking steps to make it more difficult for terrorists and their supporters to use the company’s products after learning that ISIS was recommending these products to the organization’s followers.
“We are enacting more aggressive back-end payment technology to reduce the likelihood of evildoers like (the Islamic State group) ISIS,” said Mike Janke, co-founder and chief executive of the company which is headquartered in Switzerland.
Janke told AFP that this move is likely to curb use of his company’s products because criminals and terrorists often use stolen credit cards or fake addresses.
“Since ISIS labeled us as the strongest product, we are going to implement what we feel is responsible and morally acceptable procedures to make it harder for the bad element to get our technology,” he said.
Janke said Silent Circle’s outside payment processor would implement steps “that can detect stolen credit cards, fake address and other black market means of acquiring our Blackphone or software.”
Janke said, however, that the company would continue to fight efforts to weaken encryption or laws which would allow law enforcement access to private data.
“Nobody wants to see their name at the top of an ISIS list,” he told AFP.
He also noted that the encryption and private messaging services his company, and other companies, provide are important for government officials, corporations, and democracy activists.
“In some parts of the world secure communications literally means the difference between life and death,” he said. He noted that intelligence services, heads of state, and major corporations use the company’s products.
Silent Circle does not store customer data, and it is thus technically impossible for it to comply with court orders to identify its users.
He was philosophical about how different people may use technology for different purposes.
“Whether it’s a cricket bat or a car, one percent of the human population will use it for evil,” he told AFP. “You can’t penalize the other 99 percent of the world.”
