Inventor of world wide web criticises NSA over privacy breaches - Telegraph

Inventor of world wide web criticises NSA over privacy breaches - Telegraph

The inventor of the world wide web has criticised America's National Security Agency and its British counterpart GCHQ for weakening online security by breaking the encryptions that guard data privacy for millions of computer users around the world.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee called for a "full and frank public debate" over internet surveillance, warning that cracking encryption software was foolish and would be exploited by cybercriminals.

"We need powerful agencies to combat criminal activity online – but any powerful agency needs checks and balances and, based on recent revelations, it seems the current system of checks and balances has failed," he told the Guardian.

"In a totalitarian state where it reckoned it was the only strong state in the world, I can imagine that being a reasonable plan. But in this situation, internet security is hard. It's naïve to imagine that if you introduce a weakness into a system you will be the only one to use it."

As well as the dangers of exposing private data to hacker gangs and hostile states, cracking encryptions was also unethical, he said.

"Any democratic country has to take the high road; it has to live by its principles. I'm very sympathetic to attempts to increase security against organised crime, but you have to distinguish yourself from the criminal."

While he had expected some of the surveillance activities that were revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden were taking place, he told the paper he was surprised by the scale of the NSA's reach.
Mr Snowden's disclosures illustrated a "dysfunctional and unaccountable" failure at the heart of US and UK governments and proved that whistleblowers must be protected from prosecution.
Sir Tim, who is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, currently serves as the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that seeks to improve global standards for the web.