Local reporters will be in a weak position for their work due to this measure of the Colorado police
Network security and ethical hacking
specialists from the International Institute of Cyber Security report that at
least ten of the police agencies in Colorado, U.S. have decided to implement encryption
in all their radio communications, as previously applied only to operations
considered ‘sensitive’. Because of this new policy, journalists will no longer
be able to use scanners or mobile applications to track police calls.
“Applying encryption to our communications will
improve the security and effectiveness of police departments,” said Colorado
state officials. “Not only were journalists using this kind of technology, also
criminals and suspects took advantage of listening to our calls,” officials
added.
However, network
security experts consider that this mainly affects journalists, as it
will be more difficult for them to go to the places where the facts relevant to
their work are happening, reason to argue that the Police agencies are limiting
transparency in their tasks.
Still, this is not something that privacy
activists or some cybersecurity firm consider intrinsically wrong;
communication encryption is, in fact, something desirable today. Encryption
protects individuals and organizations sensitive information, such as financial
data, online purchases or even identities, against malicious hackers, as
considered by network security experts.
In addition, these days there are multiple data
security incidents involving organizations of any size that lack the right
protocols and information security measures, malicious actors of all kinds are
always at the stalking of weaknesses that allow access to information belonging
to millions of people.
People should really be aware about the
importance of their information privacy, just as someone closes the doors of
their house with key before leaving; online service users must protect their
data with measures such as passwords or multi-factor authentication. Therefore,
although this measure of the Colorado police may be controversial, it could
also be beneficial to many.
