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CYBERSECURITY V GOVERNMENT

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course

Date
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My Stand And The Argument To The Contrary To Support My Stance

In this case, employers and governments should not scan the encrypted traffic even to

protect against cyber threats. This is due to the core issues of privacy, digital security, and civil

liberties in the current society as a result of the growth of the use of the internet. Encryption is

one of the primary measures to shield personal and professional information from being accessed

by illegitimate actors; thus, its inspection should not be permitted. Privacy rights of

communication are significant in personal and political freedom in a democratic state. Allowing

authorization of encrypted traffic inspection is nothing but mass surveillance, which infringes on

the Fourth Amendment rights of privacy and will likely deter potentially threatening speech and

assembly (West, 2023). Thus, when individuals are aware that their communications could be

intercepted, they may refrain from speaking about certain topics, reduce the amount, or avoid

speaking in certain mediums, thus threatening the fundamental democratic right of the freedom

of speech.

From the technological perspective, putting loggers or compromising encryption, which

is necessary for inspection, takes much insecurity. These weaknesses could be easily exploited

by the wrong persons, which could lead to more significant negative consequences than anything

that inspection of such type purports to eliminate. Security expert Bruce Schneier reiterated,

“You cannot create a backdoor that only the good guys can use.” From the argument, it is clear

that there is always a danger of undermining the effectiveness of encryption systems (West,

2023). It would also greatly compromise the trust that people have in digital communicative

infrastructures if mass surveillance of encrypted traffic were to be implemented. This could

reduce the adoption of important online services and limit innovation in fields that require data
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security, like telemedicine, fintech and e-commerce. Such a shift could open up significant

economic implications for countertop businesses and global economies.

In the global market, countries or companies that are reported to practice mass inspection

on encrypted communications may encounter competitive handicaps. As a consequence, some

people and companies decide not to use the services or purchase the goods offered by these

companies since their representatives collect personal data or since they may misuse it. This

could mean that cyberspace would be segmented in some way and might be detrimental to global

cooperation and business. This also gives the power to inspect encrypted traffic, thus the

potential to abuse the power (West, 2023). Authoritarian governments may employ this

capability for stifling opposition or the extermination of dissidents. In the corporate world,

employers might find it convenient to spy on other people's communications or even spy for

other companies. The tendency to apply them in unlawful ways is relatively high, which can

aggravate the situation with human rights and corporate governance.

One should also note that the possibility to inspect the encrypted traffic may not be as

efficient in combating modern threats as the proponents believe. More determined attackers

would probably discover ways of avoiding the observer, such as in steganography or air-gapped

systems (West, 2023). Therefore, the most cutting-edge threats in cyberspace may go unnoticed

while violations of inviolable rights belonging to law-compliant citizens are left exposed. At the

same time, the advocacy for enabling some sort of encryption traffic scan has substantial legal

concerns, as well as the enhancement of security and law enforcement capabilities. Supporters

further explain that it is necessary to be able to decrypt the transmitted messages to prevent

terrorism, espionage and other threats to the state. They submitted arguments that the gains in

public security mechanisms are worth the loss in privacy. Police forces are one of the authorities
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claiming that criminals have become more high-tech when communicating with their partners.

Thus, law enforcement needs access to the encrypted messages. Consequently, they opine that

without this capability, it is very difficult to carry out further research and apprehend significant

cyber-crimes such as pedophile, con artists, and organized crimes and, others.

From the corporate point of view, organizations claim that they have the duty to preserve

their networks, own property, and other crucial information from various internal and external

threats. As for the opponents state that the increase in encrypted traffic could be perfectly useful

for identifying data leakage, cyber threats originating from insiders, and other types of espionage

activity, which are becoming increasingly critical challenges in the digitalization of commercial

processes. Supporters of inspection have also noted that there may be ways to ensure that abuse

prevention may be achieved while allowing for inspection whenever necessary. This might

necessitate warrants, oversight committees, and other rigorous rules regarding how the person's

data can be used. They suggested that such measures could balance security requirements and

protect individuals' rights. Fluctuating threat landscapes is the other argument that advocates of

encrypted traffic inspection have put forward, Although the following charts do not directly

indicate this (Admass et al., 2024). With every passing day seeing increased and potentially

destructive cyber attacks, some say that reactive security is inadequate. They argue that to

counter these threats, it is necessary to produce capacity for inspecting encrypted traffic and

safeguarding infrastructure facilities.

The supporters also use arguments based on the similarities with the activities performed

in the physical reality. Governments already possess the authority to legally intercept mail or

listen to phone communication, provided they have legal justification. Admass et al., 2024)

stated that they posited this because they opined that using this capability in the online
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environment builds naturally upon it in response to emerging communication modalities.

Although there are some reasonable points as to why encrypted traffic should be inspected,

knowing the growth of various threats in the sphere of cybersecurity, it is still necessary to

address the drawbacks of this approach and state that they are more significant. That is why the

pursuit of the fundamental right to privacy and the decision to weaken encryption contribute to

its deterioration, the possibility of its misuse, and the creation of technical weaknesses. Efforts

should be made to build on existing conventional methodologies and international cooperation in

cyberspace investigations; invest in better threat detection or any system that does not require the

bypassing of encryption; create awareness among the end-users about cybersecurity; encourage

development of secure systems and protocols.

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References

Admass, W. S., Munaye, Y. Y., & Diro, A. A. (2024). Cyber security: State of the art, challenges

and future directions. Cyber Security and Applications, 2, 100031.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csa.2023.100031

West, H. (2023, December 5). Encryption: It’s Not About Good and Bad Guys, It’s About All of

Us. CEPA. https://cepa.org/comprehensive-reports/encryption-its-not-about-good-and-

bad-guys-its-about-all-of-us/