Blanket Weakening of Encryption IS NOT the way to replace Due Diligence
If you don’t know by now, in December 2018 the Australian government with the support of the Australian Labor party passed new legislation that requires technology companies to be able to decrypt and hand over user data, when requested by law enforcement and the public services. This law requires technology companies to provide access to consumer data even if it means building a backdoor into their private encryption process. This new legislation not only compels companies to hand over user data they have access to, but also forces them to build interception capabilities to gather this data outside of any private agreements with users.
This new legislation requiring the creation of a security ‘backdoor’ could have unprecedented implications worldwide, with hackers and adversarial foreign governments jumping on the opportunity to take advantage of weakened security.
With a focus on secure enterprise communications, Salt Communication’s opinion on providing encryption services to private citizens is irrelevant. Salt Communications is not a consumer offering, and will only provide access of our solution to qualified, reputable enterprises.
Salt Communications has been built with the ethos of giving control to legal organisations, allowing them to trust the technology they use, with the promise that their information is private. By adopting a strict ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) policy Salt Communications have rejected approaches from many companies across the globe, including Australia, when the company has been unable to satisfy the necessary KYC assessment. Salt Communications and its security partners ensure that only approved professionals with a real-life legal use case have access to their encrypted network. We are not a consumer app available to anyone and MOST IMPORTANTLY we do not provide lip-service KYC to legal fronts for illegal practices.
Salt Communications believe that for organisations to operate effectively in the fast moving corporate and security markets, they MUST be able to encrypt their highly sensitive information and trust the integrity of that encryption.
An order by the Australian Government or its agencies for Salt Communications to comply with these latest regulations would greatly compromise the core tenets of Salt Communication‘s enterprise security: PRIVACY & CONTROL. Globally, the government and defense market is a key industry for Salt Communications, and we understand firsthand the important role that these organisations have in providing offline and online security for their population.
Salt Communications permit access to our secure communications system ONLY for qualified organisations who pass our KYC policy, ensuring encryption is used to share and store legitimate sensitive communications. The new A&A law drastically reduces Salt Communications‘ ability to honour our product design strategy in Australia.
Salt Communications remain committed to providing the leading secure enterprise communications solution to Corporations and Governments across the globe. Our belief REMAINS that providing an offering where encryption and control work together is the answer to enterprise security. Our solution will always involve both components working in tandem – not apart from each other.
For more information about Salt Communications, please visit our website on saltcommunications.com or contact our team on info@saltcommunications.com.
About Salt Communications
Salt Communications, ranked in the top half in the Cybersecurity 500, provides a fully enterprise-managed software solution that enables absolute privacy in mobile communications. It is easy to deploy and uses multi-layered encryption techniques to meet the highest of security standards. The Salt Communications Desktop and Mobile apps are intuitive and easy to install and use. The Salt Communications Communication Manager provides a console for tight management of users and can be configured for the management of regulatory compliance. Salt Communications is headquartered in Belfast, Ireland, for more information visit saltcommunications.com.
