GCHQ director calls for new relationship with tech firms over encryption

The director of GCHQ has said it is time for a new relationship between US and British intelligence agencies and tech companies, which have been at odds over encryption. Robert Hannigan called for dialogue in a less “highly charged atmosphere” and disclosed that British Prime Minister David Cameron would set out a process in the next few months that “can shed some really useful light. And, for my part, my promise today is to engage in that process with the tech industry openly, respectfully and in good faith”.

Hannigan, in only his second public comments, said he was not in favour of banning encryption. “Nor am I asking for mandatory backdoors. I am puzzled by the caricatures in the current debate, where almost every attempt to tackle the misuse of encryption by criminals and terrorists is seen as a ‘backdoor’. It is an overused metaphor, or at least mis-applied in many cases, and I think it illustrates the confusion of the ethical debate in what is a highly charged and technically complex area,” he said.