Facebook is planning end-to-end encryption on all its messaging services to increase privacy levels.

The tech giant started experimenting with this earlier this year. Soon, end-to-end encryption will be standard for every Facebook message.

But Australian, British and United States governments and law makers arent happy about it. They fear it will make it impossible to recover criminal conversations from Facebooks platforms, thus offering impunity to offenders.

For instance, this was a major concern following the 2017 London terror attacks. Attackers used WhatsApp (Facebooks end-to-end encrypted platform), and this frustrated police investigations.

But does Facebooks initiative place the company between a political rock and an ethical hard place?

What is end-to-end encryption?

End-to-end encryption is a method of communicating more securely, compared to non-encrypted communications.

It involves using encryption (via cryptographic keys) that excludes third parties from accessing content shared between communicating users.

When the sender wants to communicate with the receiver, they share a unique algorithmic key to decrypt the message. No one else can access it, not even the service provider.

The Real Incentive

Facebooks plan to enact this change is paradoxical, considering the company has a history of harvesting user data and selling it to third parties.

Now, it supposedly wants to protect the privacy of the same users.

One possible reason Facebook is pushing for this development is because it will solve many of its legal woes.

With end-to-end encryption, the company will no longer have backdoor access to users messages.

Thus, it wont be forced to comply with requests from law enforcement agencies to access data. And even if police were able to get hold of the data, they would still need the key required to read the messages.

Only users would have the ability to share the key (or messages) with law enforcement.

Points in Favour

Implementing end-to-end encryption will positively impact Facebook users privacy, as their messages will be protected from eavesdropping.

This means Facebook, law enforcement agencies and hackers will find it harder to intercept any communication done through the platform.

And although end-to-end encryption is arguably not necessary for most everyday conversations, it does have advantages, including:

1) protecting users personal and financial information, such as transactions on Facebook Marketplace

2) increasing trust and cooperation between users

3) preventing criminals eavesdropping on individuals to harvest their information, which can render them victim to stalking, scamming and romance frauds

4) allowing those with sensitive medical, political or sexual information to be able to share it with others online

5) enabling journalists and intelligence agencies to communicate privately with sources.

Not Foolproof

However, even though end-to-end encryption will increase users privacy in certain situations, it may still not be enough to make conversations completely safe.

This is because the biggest threat to eavesdropping is the very act of using a device.

End-to-end encryption doesnt guarantee the people we are talking to online are who they say they are.

Also, while cryptographic algorithms are hard to crack, third parties can still obtain the key to open the message. For example, this can be done by using apps to take screenshots of a conversation, and sending them to third parties.

A Benefit for Criminals

When Facebook messages become end-to-end encrypted, it will be harder to detect criminals, including people who use the platform to commit scams and launch malware.

Others use Facebook for human or sex trafficking, as well as child grooming and exploitation.

Facebook Messenger can also help criminals organise themselves, as well as plan and carry out crimes, including terror attacks and cyber-enabled fraud extortion hacks.

The unfortunate trade-off in increasing user privacy is reducing the capacity for surveillance and national security efforts.

End-to-end encryption on Facebook would also increase criminals feeling of security.

However, although tech companies cant deny the risk of having their technologies exploited for illegal purposes they also dont have a complete duty to keep a particular countrys cyberspace safe.

What to do?

A potential solution to the dilemma can be found in various critiques of the UKs 2016 Investigatory Powers Act.

It proposes that, on certain occasions, a communications service provider may be asked to remove encryption (where possible).

However, this power must come from an authority that can be held accountable in court for its actions, and this should be used as a last resort.

In doing so, encryption will increase user privacy without allowing total privacy, which carries harmful consequences.

So far, several governments have pushed back against Facebooks encryption plans, fearing it will place the company and its users beyond their reach, and make it more difficult to catch criminals.

End-to-end encryption is perceived as a bulwark for surveillance by third parties and governments, despite other ways of intercepting communications.

Many also agree surveillance is not only invasive, but also prone to abuse by governments and third parties.

Freedom from invasive surveillance also facilitates freedom of expression, opinion and privacy, as observed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In a world where debate is polarised by social media, Facebook and similar platforms are caught amid the politics of security.

Its hard to say how a perfect balance can be achieved in such a multifactorial dilemma.

Either way, the decision is a political one, and governments - as opposed to tech companies - should ultimately be responsible for such decisions.

Roberto Musotto is a Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre postdoctoral fellow at the Edith Cowan University and David S. Wall is a professor of criminology at the University of Leeds

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Facebook's Push for End-to-End Encryption Is Good News for User Privacy, as Well as Terrorists and Paedophiles - Nextgov

It's the time of year again where the great and good of the tech sector like to consult the tea leaves, gaze into the crystal ball, read the runes -- and of course draw on their industry knowledge -- to give their predictions for the year ahead.

So, what do they think is in store for cybersecurity in 2020?

The decline of the password has been on the horizon for a while, but Ben Goodman, CISSP and SVP of global and corporate development at ForgeRockbelieves 2020 will mark the beginning of the end. "Consumers already log in to dozens of protected resources everyday: from email, banking and financial accounts, social media, healthcare, government accounts, and beyond. Even when tools like TouchID are leveraged each of these resources currently still have an associated username and password that can be attacked. To save time and remember their credentials for all these sites, consumers reuse the same username and password across several sites. As a result, the user's exposure from any one security breach on one of those profiles dramatically increases the odds that additional accounts can be compromised as well, allowing attackers to access far more sensitive information."

This is echoed by Clayton Calvert, a consultant at IT security and risk assessment firm netlogx. "With passwordless authentication, IT reclaims its purpose of having complete visibility over identity and access management. Reuse and sharing are common issues in password-based authentication. Without passwords, there is nothing to phish, share, or reuse. The user is no longer a wild card in an organization's access scheme. It is this crucial element that gives passwordless solutions their security advantage. As an added benefit, GDPR prefers that companies use passwordless authentication to eliminate the storing and securing of passwords exchanged over the network. While consumers have used this technology for a number of years in Apple and Samsung products, companies are beginning to do so as well. Sixty percent of large enterprises and nearly all of midsize organizations will use passwordless authentication by 2020."

With the decline of the password though the rise of deepfakes becomes a greater concern. CEO of Jumio, Robert Prigge says, "With a reported 50 percent of consumers using the same credentials across multiple accounts, automated account takeover attacks will continue to run rampant in 2020. As the industry abandons outdated authentication methods that are easily susceptible to fraud, like SMS-based 2FA and knowledge-based authentication, and turn to more advanced, biometric-based authentication methods as a secure alternative, the rise of deepfake technology will become a larger concern. A deepfake superimposes existing video footage or photographs of a face onto a source head and body using advanced neural network powered AI -- and are relatively easy to create. In 2020, we will see an increase in deepfake technology being weaponized for fraud as biometric-based authentication solutions are widely adopted. Even more concerning is that many digital identity verification solutions are unable to detect and prevent deepfakes, bots and sophisticated spoofing attacks."

Deepfakes raise other concerns too according to Optiv Security, "There has been much publicity around the potential to impact elections using deepfakes (AI-doctored videos that enable individuals to make it appear people said things they never said). However, not enough attention has been paid to how cybercriminals can make money using deepfakes against businesses. This will change in 2020 as we expect to see the first deepfake attacks designed to impact stock prices, by having CEOs, financial analysts, Federal Reserve leaders or other powerful economic figures make phony statements that will cause stock market movements. Cybercriminals will use these videos to make quick killings in the market."

2020 is also set to be the year of encryption according to Peter Galvin, vice president strategy and marketing at nCipher Security. "In the US, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have re-energized a push for encryption backdoors, an initiative that is seeing bipartisan support. Internationally, the UK and Australian governments (in addition to the US government) are pressuring Facebook to scrap plans for end-to-end encryption of Facebook Messenger. Galvin adds, Consumers, meanwhile, want more control and privacy over their data yet are often left confused about what that really means and how to make it a reality. Also factoring into the encryption conversation is the protection of voter information leading up to the US election and advancements in facial recognition software."

We can also expect to see more attacks aimed at critical infrastructure and governments according to Alex Heid, chief research officer at SecurityScorecard. "Malicious nation-state actors will continue to focus on malware and ransomware attacks. Nation-state actors don't just want to sell cardholder data on the Dark Web, theyre targeting critical infrastructure such as electricity and water companies.

"In August of 2019, emails sent to US utilities companies contained a remote access trojan as part of a spear phishing campaign. The advanced persistent threat is another in a long line of attacks targeting critical infrastructure.

"With at least thirteen global presidential elections scheduled for 2020, we can expect to see more malware and ransomware attacks attempting to undermine voters confidence."

The ongoing skills shortage will add to problems says Bret Fund, head of cybersecurity at training specialist Flatiron School, "While the average pay for cybersecurity positions in North America is $90,000, pay levels in some areas -- such as local and federal government -- is below what's needed to attract and retain skilled talent. With healthcare, financial services and other large enterprises making it more lucrative for qualified cybersecurity professionals to work in their organizations, local government will be faced with a great cybersecurity skills shortage. Local government agencies will have to think creatively about how they can re-skill their current employee base to meet their cybersecurity needs."

Healthcare is set to come under attack too says Mike Riemer, chief security architect at Pulse Secure, "It is already well-understood that the healthcare industry struggles to secure its trove of sensitive data. But, even as widely discussed as this issue is, the healthcare industry has been slow to adopt effective security measures and quick to embrace an even greater influx of data during digital transformation efforts. As healthcare continues to evolve towards the convenient, self-service model that todays digital-first consumer demands, there will be serious security implications as companies try to control the release of data and information. For example, telemedicine is making patient care extremely convenient, but is the doctor-patient communication secured and encrypted? If not, anyone can intercept the data and communication in transit. How do you secure that information stored on the end-user's phone? The security of any network is only as strong as the weakest link. In this service model, the end-point device is most likely to be compromised and healthcare organizations need to ensure they are meeting all the security and regulatory requirements."

Are there other trends that you think will affect cybersecurity in 2020? Let us know.

Photo Credit: vinzstudio/Shutterstock

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The decline of passwords, the rise of encryption and deepfakes cybersecurity predictions for 2020 - BetaNews

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Hardware-based Full Disk Encryption Market Executive Summary, Introduction, Sizing, Analysis and Forecast To 2025 - Market Research Sheets

The U.S. Presidential elections of 2020 are just around the corner and regulatory and government bodies are all over the tech giants. Facebook, is the special concern of everyone due to the ongoing challenges it is facing related to message encryption, political ads and more.

Facebooks only concern right now is to enhance security on the platform to avoid the claws of the officials. Its hard to say that Facebook might come out of it, but there are chances if they act right.

The officials are trying to put Facebook on the back foot to avoid any mishaps from happening. Here are the top concerns that are becoming a nightmare for Zuckerberg.

For me or you, its normal. What about drug suppliers, child abusers, child traffickers and more? It might turn into a Christmas gift for them.

In October, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, US Attorney General Bill Barr, acting US Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, and Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton published a letter in which they demanded Facebook abandon their project of full encryption.

Legally speaking, they are concerned about the well-being of people. End-to-end encryption feature will turn into a hub for terrorists, child sexual exploiters, abusers and more a place to carry on their secret conversations.

The government officials are demanding this to reduce the risk of serious harms that can affect countries. If not abandon the idea, then officials asked Facebook to provide a back door or an access point to law enforcement to maintain some transparency.

Facebook has commented that they will not be abandoning the idea of encryption nor will they provide any access point. As expected, Facebook responded that giving access point to one means opening doors for others as well. It is for sure that other actors will try to take advantage of this access point that can also bring major harm.

By rejecting this idea, Facebook is well aware that it has attracted more eyes to hawk on it. The scrutiny will increase and the criticism against Facebook will only touch new heights. However, Facebooks fully encrypted chat will bring more privacy-savvy users to the platform.

Even though Facebook might be right in their decision, but the current situation with the government does not support their stance on full message encryption.

Many saw Islamophobic posts and more on the Facebook, but Facebook requested that it is as per their Community Standards Hey Facebook, I surely wanna know about this community!

With so many users on Facebook, it is certainly impossible to regulate everything as per standards. Facebook is one of its kind when it comes to having a social impact and millions of users. Believe it or not, Facebook actually has a social impact on people.

People do get influenced by Facebook and such posts only feed into their thoughts. With Presidential Elections coming, that is the least that Facebook would want!

Marc Owen Jones, a Professor has identified that the political activists are using bots to flood misinformation. Using such tactics only leads to fueled counter-movements and arguments that could cause bias pretty easily.

Targeting influential local groups is a note-worthy strategy to reach to major national ones. First, leave the bacteria in one place and the disease will travel everywhere. These posts get a lot of engagement, which can make the word travel faster among other groups.

In the end, even some high profiles engage in such false and fake content, which is beyond Facebooks control!

On such a large scale, even Facebook might be unable to control the content flowing on the internet. If Facebook stops people, they will move to another social media platform. You see, its the people, not the Facebook!

Photo: JasonDoiy via Getty Images

Read next: Frequent Facebook Use Leads to Higher Number of Ad Preferences

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With Elections over the Head and Facebook's Message Encryption and Election Security Many Questions are raised - Digital Information World

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Future of Encryption Software Market Reviewed in a New Research Study 2019-2025 - Daily News Reports 24