Encryption: A plea for common sense

This morning I will join Senator Ron Wyden, Associate Professor Jun Li, and some of my fellow Silicon Shire tech entrepreneurs at the University of Oregon for a discussion panel on encryption and cybersecurity.

My company, Wellbeyond, is dedicated to spreading health and happiness. During the past months we have developed a meditation app for children. It helps parents sit down and meditate with their children to help increase focus, reduce anxiety, and make bedtime easier.

When considering the secure handling of private information most of us primarily think of health and financial data. It’s important to remember that ordinary apps and websites also handle information that may indicate rather revealing aspects of our behavior. Even a simple meditation app? Yes!

When a child frequently meditates to reduce anxiety, that is nobody’s business. This is strictly between the child and her parents. Dependable encryption is absolutely essential to protect these families. If a child loses her tablet or phone (it happens!), her family shouldn’t have to worry that private information on her device might get in the wrong hands.

All of us, and our loved ones, already have deeply personal information stored on our devices and in the cloud. If you ever become a victim of identity theft or other criminal use of private information, your life could easily become a living hell. Right now, as you read this, organized crime networks from all corners of the world are gathering and trading personal information obtained through weak security.

We know that any weakness, or “backdoor,” engineered into an encryption scheme exponentially weakens security and creates a door through which anyone may enter. Time and time again, backdoors have been proven to be the cybercriminal’s best friend. Forcing American companies to compromise their security through backdoors would render consumer data vulnerable to attack.

If we don’t learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. Only this time, because computing has become much more personal, the impact would be far greater and more painful than ever before.

Very sensitive information about our children, health, and finances can only be handled on computer systems through dependable encryption. IT professionals must be trained to handle sensitive data securely, and it is crucial that our government and private companies continue to strengthen, not weaken encryption.

A poll recently conducted by ACT | The App Association on voter attitudes toward encryption reveals that the vast majority of the public agrees, with 93 percent of Americans believing strong encryption keeps their information secure. Further, 9 out of 10 voters believe backdoors could be exploited by hackers and criminals.

Our community is working hard to do its part. Many of my colleagues in the Silicon Shire have made security a top priority and are investing heavily in it. The University of Oregon Center for Cybersecurity and Privacy, under the leadership of Professor Li, created an advanced degree in cyber security. For many years, Senator Wyden has been a relentless and tireless champion of privacy and security, fighting to protect the most precious information of all Americans. I look forward to our discussion today.