These are the forums where the industrialised countries discuss the harmonisation of technical standards that will enable the interception of Internet communication, the harmonisation of powers to track down and trace people and cooperation by cross-border investigations into cybercrime. The measures agreed upon in these forums trickle down either directly or through treaties into national legislation. Regular as clockwork, police and intelligence services announce that they might as well close up shop if no solution can be found to counteract encryption programmes. This view is diametrically opposed by civil rights groups, which regard encryption as an important means by which to preserve privacy in the digital world. The business community is also an important participant in the discussion.
Reliable encryption is indispensable to anyone engaging in digital commerce.
This dossier describes the various efforts made either to ban encryption or to keep it under strict control, as well as law enforcement's latest methods. Now that it is clear that encryption cannot be stopped, the authorities are grasping at other investigative methods by which it can be circumvented. Privacy and the rights of suspects are the poor relations of digital developments. This has become especially true since the intelligence services have devoted themselves with a vengeance to the digital hunt. Making and keeping this form of communication open to interception is very important for intelligence services.