Suspected terrorists increasingly encrypting data: Dutch expert

Terrorists and other criminals increasingly use encryption, making it harder and harder for intelligence services to break into their communications, according to Dutch experts in a report to the UN Security Council, BNR reports. Ronald Prins, director of computer security firm Fox-IT, is calling for Dutch security services to be given more power to break into computers in the fight against crimes like terrorism and child pornography. "There should be new legislation to give intelligence services the room to effectively break into computers. Currently that is still limited", he said to BNR. Prins emphasized that he is not advocating a ban on encryption, as recently proposed in the United Kingdom. Nor is he in favor of coding "back doors" into popular communication software so that intelligence services can get access to it. "It is very good that we can all communicate securely with each other", he said to the broadcaster. "We need to be able to arm ourselves against, for example, foreign services." The IT expert believes it more effective to let intelligence officers infiltrate in places where criminals are potentially hiding. "Intelligence services never work with only technique. First you have to find forums where these people gather. After that you can break in with technical means. If you break into the computer that performs the encryption, you still have the option to read the data."