MI5 to read emails if Cameron re-elected

Information security is about to be given a lot of attention thanks to David Cameron’s pledge that all online messages will be available for agents to view, should he be re-elected.

The PM made the claim after the recent terrorist attacks that took place in Paris. The Deputy PM, leader of the Lib Dems Nick Clegg, took little time to respond. He made the point that the ability to invade a terrorist’s privacy is not the same as privacy invasion upon every UK civilian.

The PM vowed to introduce a law that refuses terrorists a safe arena to talk with one another, if re-elected.

The proposed legislation would give the authorities more power to view online messages.

Brian Honan from BH Consulting was speaking to SCMagazineUK.com when he said that it isn’t workable, in the scheme of things, to implement methods such as government backdoors.

He commented:

“If the police can use a backdoor to get into my encrypted communications, then any criminals, activists, commercial companies or foreign spy agencies will all be able to use those same backdoors. And it’s not a matter of if they will use them, it will be more a matter of when.”

Whether we will see this law implemented remains to be seen, but there are certainly other actions that can be taken in the meantime to combat threats to data security. SMEs can take recent events into consideration and respond by increasing their own online protection. By making cyber security jobs available to trained professionals, they will be increasing their own protection, along with that of their customers.