The leader of the Internet Society has called for the mass encryption of the internet. The society's President and CEO Kathryn Brown said as much in a blogpost friday.
In the blog, she said global economies are underpinned by a securely connected world: “Strong encryption is an essential piece to the future of the world's economy and the Internet Society believes it should be the norm for all online transactions.”
Her comments coincide with July's assembly of G20 leaders in Baden-Baden, Germany. This marks the first time, in the series of annual meetings, that the group is holding a ‘Ministerial' on digital issues.
With that in mind, Brown took the opportunity to declare that Encryption “should be made stronger and universal, not weaker”. She cited the fact that 28 percent of output in mature economies is digital and the internet forms 7.1 percent of the GDP of G20 countries.
But too often encryption is considered to be a tool to help criminals, terrorists and sex offenders hide themselves from the eyes of law enforcement. To see encryption in only this light, and not as a “a technical building block for securing infrastructure, communications and information”, could have serious consequences.
Brown made three recommendations to the attendees of the coming G20 summit.
First, “Encryption is an important technical foundation for trust in the digital economy and should be the norm”.
Second, “The security of the digital economy is a shared responsibility” which must be taken care of between stakeholders, over borders and disciplines.
And finally, “users' rights should be at the heart of any decisions related to the digital economy”, as the constituent parts of its success.
