INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Enterprise Security
Study reveals views on
cybersecurity literacy of
government officials
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V
enafi, a leading provider of
machine identity protection, has
announced the results of a survey
of 515 IT security professionals’ views on
the cybersecurity literacy of government
officials. The survey was conducted earlier
this year at the Black Hat conference in Las
Vegas. According to the survey, 88% of
respondents believe all government officials
should be required to complete a basic
cybersecurity training course. In addition,
66% believe governments should not be
able to force technology companies to grant
them access to encrypted user data. propose dangerous surveillance laws and
protocols,” said Jeff Hudson, CEO of Venafi.
“For example, the Five Eyes international
alliance has been consistently pushing for
mandated encryption backdoors into private
technology devices. They don’t seem to
realise that the same encryption technology
that creates barriers for law enforcement is
also used to protect all types of classified
intelligence and other highly sensitive
government data. A backdoor sounds great
until a malicious actor gets the key, which
they always do.” Additional findings from the
survey include:
“Over the last several months we’ve seen
government officials from across the globe • Nearly two-thirds (65%) believe
government-mandated encryption
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backdoors weaken the security of
election data
• Only a third (33%) believe government
officials understand the cyber-risks
targeting physical
• Only 37% believe government officials
understand the cyber-risks targeting digital
IT professionals may be sceptical about
backdoors because government officials
may misrepresent the scope of the problem.
The FBI has claimed encryption is a
‘major public safety issue’ because law
enforcement officials are frequently
locked out of devices connected to
criminal activities. n
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