Web inventor Berners-Lee says UK & US spy agencies' encryption cracking "appalling & foolish"

  • 7 November 2013
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Very disturbing reading this:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/06/tim-berners-lee-encryption-spy-agencies
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24844427
According to Sir Tim Berners-Lee the inventor of the web, British and American national spy agencies are weakening online security and therefore inadvertently helping cybercriminals (both organised cybercrime and nation-state cyberwarfare). They are also damaging the public's confidence in the privacy of the internet.
 
Two quotes from The Guardian article:
      "... such spying could damage the public's confidence in the intimate privacy of the internet as a free and safe place to interact. 'When you take away the safe space, you take away a lot of the power of human problem solving,' he warned."
      "The scientist ... reserved his harshest words for GCHQ and the NSA's undermining of the protection afforded by encryption, which he said would benefit organised criminal hacker gangs and hostile states."
 
The three UK spy chiefs are to appear before a UK Parliamentary Committee this afternoon.

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