In its ProtectEU strategy, the European Commission again pushes for encryption “backdoors”

The European Commission has unveiled ProtectEU, a new internal security strategy that once again raises the question of law enforcement access to encrypted data. The document is presented as a “vision and work plan” spanning several years, but for now it contains no concrete legislative proposals.

Threats and six priorities

In its press release, the Commission describes the current geopolitical climate as an environment of “growing” threats from hostile states, powerful criminal organizations and terrorists who are increasingly “operating online.” It makes special mention of the rise in cybercrime and attacks on critical infrastructure. Against this backdrop, the strategy singles out six priorities, and one of them — “more effective tools for law enforcement” — once again puts encryption in the crosshairs.

Euphemisms instead of plain wording

When describing how the ground might be prepared for mandatory backdoors, the EU favors evasive phrasing: drawing up “roadmaps” for “lawful and effective access to data” and searching for “technological solutions for access to encrypted information.” A technological encryption “roadmap” is precisely what is meant to track such solutions down.

The European Union is not alone in its wish to eventually restrict encryption by law, yet initiatives of this kind invariably run up against warnings from tech companies and civil rights advocates. The objection is straightforward: encryption safeguards not only the privacy of correspondence (which is what the security services want to reach) but also the technical protection of the communications themselves, of financial transactions and much else.

The strategy promises that, when a future backdoor is introduced, both cybersecurity and fundamental rights will be preserved. But such a promise is inherently impossible to keep: once created, a “loophole” effectively becomes available to everyone — including the very hostile states and non-state actors the strategy is supposedly meant to protect against.

Centralization and a stronger Europol

Beyond encryption, ProtectEU envisions expanded intelligence sharing among member states and a strengthened common analytical structure, SIAC (Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity), to “anticipate” threats. Another step toward centralization is the expansion of Europol’s powers, including cross-border and large-scale investigations, which is meant to turn the agency into a “fully-fledged operational police service.” At the same time, member states are reminded that the goal of all this is to “step up support” for them.

Source: Hacker News