Hi there,

When is end-to-end encryption not really end-to-end encryption?

That’s a question worth asking the Five Eyes intelligence alliance – including New Zealand and Australia – as they again attempt to mandate that messaging platforms insert backdoors to enable law enforcement to access citizen’s communications.

They argue – quite legitimately – that encryption creates challenges for criminal investigations and allows criminals, particularly those involved in child porn and terrorism, to continue plying their trade with impunity.

At the same time, encryption protects personal data, privacy, intellectual property and the likes (not ignoring that we give those away freely in return for using the platform in the first place).

But encoding backdoor access is fraught and the opportunities for abuse are obvious – Five Eyes themselves admit that it’s vital in protecting human rights defenders, journalists and others in ‘repressive’ states. Still, they want backdoors.

Unfortunately, this is one example where there is no middle ground. Introducing a back door for some, introduces it for everyone.

Five Eyes might be better picking other fights than this one.

In other news:

Covid’s impact on digitisation goes under the ruler
R&D changes hit NZ and Australia
Analytics are awesome. Except they're not say marketing leaders
Putting a bounty on banking bugs
Microsoft’s underwater data centre ‘feasible, practical’ – and no gimmick
Who’s winning big at DX? IDC Awards highlight A/NZ achievements

Enjoy the read,

Heather Wright
Editor
editor@istart.com.au

ENCRYPTION

Five Eyes prises encryption backdoors

Andrew Little, Peter Dutton among signatories…

NZ and Australia have renewed calls for back doors in encrypted products, claiming end-to-end encryption ‘creates severe risk to public safety’.

“Encryption is an existential anchor of trust in the digital world [but] particular implementations of encryption technology pose significant challenges to public safety.”

[Read more]

DIGITISATION

Just how much did Covid accelerate digitisation?

McKinsey and PwC surveys offer up some tangible figures…

Covid has been the burning platform, making BAU an impossibility and accelerating companies’ digitisation by around 10 years and pushing them over the technology tipping point.

“The results suggest that companies are making these crisis-related changes with the long term in mind.”

[Read more]

ERP BUYER"S GUIDE

R&D REFORMS

Govt scraps much-loathed tax incentive reforms

It’s a new RDTI landscape on both sides of the Tasman…

There have long been calls to amend Australia’s RDTI scheme with many big name companies among those venting their spleen earlier this year, as the Federal Government moved to cut R&D costs.

“Research and development, the adoption of digital technology, and affordable and reliable energy will be critical to Australia’s future economic prosperity.”

[Read more]

MARKETING ANALYTICS

Marketing analytics: A big annoying pain in the butt

Nearly half of CMOs “unable to measure marketing ROI”…

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it, they say.

“Marketing leaders are either optimistic about the future potential of marketing analytics, or are so far ‘in the hole’ with their investment that they don’t want to turn around.”

[Read more]

WEBINAR EVENT

CYBERSECURITY

NAB announces bug bounty

Bank joins growing numbers crowdsourcing cyber bug control…

National Australia Bank has launched the first bug bounty program for Australasian banking, paying hackers who find previously undisclosed vulnerabilities in its systems.

“Moving to a ‘paid bounty’ gives us the ability to attract a wider pool of ethically-trained security researchers.”

[Read more]

DATA CENTRES

Underwater data centre resurfaces

Microsoft’s Project Natick results show promise for underwater facilities…

Microsoft’s underwater data centre has resurfaced two years after dropping to the bottom of the ocean, and the results suggest taking a deep dive might be a pretty good idea.

Underwater data centres are not only feasible but logistically, environmentally and economically practical.

[Read more]

IDC DX AWARDS

IDC celebrates tech-enabled resilience with DX Awards

And the winners are…

Australian non-bank lender GetCapital and New Zealander’s Inland Revenue have been the big winners at this year’s IDC Australia and New Zealand Digital Transformation awards, each scooping two awards.

“The awards celebrate the tech-enabled resilience of enterprises as they reimagine their business in the new normal.”

[Read more]

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