"Keys Under Doormats" Authors Receive M3AAWG J.D. Falk Award for Clarifying Insecurity of Government-Mandated Access to Documents

ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwired - Oct 21, 2015) - M³AAWG 35^th General Meeting -- The 15 highly-respected computer scientists and security experts who came together to outline how law enforcement's proposed requirement for "backdoor" access to all encrypted files would actually make the Internet more vulnerable to crime and deception were recognized for their work today with the M³AAWG 2015 J.D. Falk Award. "Keys Under Doormats: Mandating Insecurity by Requiring Government Access to All Data and Communications" explains how the government's request for a system that would allow it to access any secured file would set back Internet security, raise legal and ethical questions, and be impractical to implement.

With recent online break-ins that have affected millions of people, "what people need to realize is that we are in a security crisis and that our information infrastructure is extremely vulnerable. The last thing we need right now are efforts to make that infrastructure even less reliable," Harold Abelson, a co-author of the report and MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science, said in his video acceptance of the award.

In accepting the award on behalf of the entire group in Atlanta, Josh Benaloh, Microsoft Research senior cryptographer, said, "We don't know how to provide law-enforcement authorities the access they seek without further weakening the already fragile security of the Internet."

Encryption uses software "keys" to unlock secured files and allow authorized users to access the content. As the Internet economy has grown, it has become an industry standard to encrypt sensitive files to protect personal data, intellectual property and communications in general. Recently, the United States, the United Kingdom and other governments have called for limiting encryption or adding "exceptional access" that would provide law enforcement authorities access to decryptions.

M³AAWG Chairman Michael Adkins said, "Our organization exists to develop industry best practices to protect people from abuse and it would seem that encouraging encryption and limiting law enforcement's access to questionable files might actually make our job harder. But secure, trusted communications are necessary to support both people's well-being and the global economy. While law enforcement's intentions are well-placed, the Keys Under Doormats report clarifies the technical and public policy issues associated with exceptional access and how it would inadvertently create a complex surveillance ecosystem that would put the global online community at risk."