Gartner Research

FBI's Plea for Weaker Security Will Harm Digital Business

Published: 05 November 2014

ID: G00271676

Analyst(s): Jay Heiser

Summary

Recent FBI advocacy for weakened smartphone encryption is not in the best interest of Gartner clients. CISOs should enable digital business by advocating for stronger encryption that allows for higher levels of trust without sacrificing performance, flexibility or revenue generation.

Table Of Contents
  • Impacts

Analysis

Impacts and Recommendations

  • Past actions by the U.S. and other governments to inhibit the use and efficacy of encryption have resulted in an artificially weak state of today's encryption art that reduces the ability of security leaders to deliver reliable security
  • FBI Director Comey's attempt to pressure Google and Apple into weakening their recently announced encryption improvements is counterproductive to CISOs trying to provision enterprise and personal security
  • Compromises of financially relevant personal information and credit card numbers will continue, forcing CISOs to gain access to stronger and more sophisticated encryption
  • Ongoing attempts by national governments to facilitate law enforcement access to digital data counterproductively weaken global high-tech markets, reducing the products and services available to CIOs

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