Vormetric surveyed how Americans view “backdoor” access by government entities to the encrypted data of private businesses. Risks to encryption backdoors were recognised by 91 percent of respondents, but they also felt that it is justified in certain cases.
An organisation's use of encryption directly lowers their risk of exposure to data breaches and theft. Businesses recognise this, as a recent survey by IANS shows, with 84 percent of enterprises considering encrypting all sensitive data. Having not gone unnoticed by Americans, adding backdoors to encryption compromises the technology.
Sixty nine percent of survey respondents said that data accessed via a backdoor can be abused by hackers. Sixty two percent said the data could be abused by government entities. US businesses could lose their competitive advantage according to 34 percent of respondents.
In certain instances Americans are pro backdoor access. Sixty three percent of respondents were in favour of backdoor access in response to a national security threat. Thirty nine percent were in favour as part of a federal investigation.
FBI director, James Comey, has repeatedly stated that encryption technology is leaving criminal investigators in the dark. Results also suggest that a lot of the polled population doesn't understand that opening backdoors to encryption also opens up backdoors for cyber-terrorists.
"Adding backdoors to encryption solutions has the potential to create additional threats from criminals and terrorists," said Vormetric CSO, Sol Cates.
