We need to reconcile civic freedom with legitimate access to data
How do you balance privacy with access to information to fight terrorism? By redefining computer security standards from Geneva, says digital democracy specialist Rufo Guerreschi.
Geneva should host a future international organization that would oversee computer security and data access issues, says Rufo Guerreschi, director of the Trustless Computing Association in Geneva and digital democracy activist. He is organizing an online conference on cybersecurity on Thursday and Friday with, among others, the former head of cyber diplomacy in the Obama administration, the former director of global affairs at Human Rights Watch and the former head of the Center for Cybersecurity at the World Economic Forum.
Le Temps: What problems are you trying to solve with this conference?
Rufo Guerreschi, Director of the Trustless Computing Association: Any communication device can be easily hacked, by a government or a criminal group. This is an advantage for fighting crime, but it poses a major problem for democracy and public safety. Governments and civil rights organizations are looking for an impossible balance, considering it a zero-sum problem. During our conference, we will launch an international governance entity that will ensure civic freedom and legitimate, legal access to data.
What can technology do?
In nuclear or aviation, technologies have been created to lower the level of risk; for example, there is one accident in every 16 million flights. However, every one of the 1.5 billion phones manufactured each year can easily be hacked by a teenager in the Ukraine. Technology can't do everything.
Why not?
Hackers are more resourceful, but the truth is that computers and the standards that govern them have been kept vulnerable so that security agencies can fulfill their crucial mission. Since governments cannot keep their hacking techniques, any criminal can acquire or rent them, turning our world into a hacking paradise.
How can we fight against this situation?
By creating an independent entity that would certify the security level of the different communication devices, both software and hardware. This entity based in Geneva would also decide if a government can access information, through a jury system that would examine the requests of different countries and evaluate if they are legitimate and legal. In our project, this entity would be the future offshoot of our Trustless Computing Association and would benefit from an extremely strong governance.