Encryption is “key” to a more secure future, ProtonMail’s co-founder and CEO Dr. Andy Yen has told We Live Security.
In an email, he said that with the “growth of ecommerce and all our data and business moving online”, the “only viable” way of maintaining information security is through end-to-encryption.
His comments come at a time when the debate over security and privacy is intensifying, with encryption a growing and contentious area of interest throughout the world.
It has best been characterized by the ongoing quarrel between Apple and the US government, with the latter effectively asking for all encrypted devices and services to have some sort of backdoor functionality.
"Our stance is to never accept for a backdoor to be introduced, and Swiss law also makes it impossible for us to be forced to implement a backdoor.”
When asked what ProtonMail’s official position is with introducing ‘secure’ backdoors – as advocated by most governments – Dr. Yen said:
“Our code is open source so this is not really possible. Our stance is to never accept for a backdoor to be introduced, and Swiss law also makes it impossible for us to be forced to implement a backdoor.”
The Switzerland-based encrypted email provider has also just announced that it has opened its service for public registration. The timing is no coincidence.
“The best way to ensure that encryption and privacy rights are not encroached upon is to get the tools into the hands of the public as soon as possible and widely distributing them,” Dr. Yen explained.
“This way, we put the choice in the hands of the consumer, and not government regulators.”
His colleague, Alex Rosier, head of communications at ProtonMail, revealed that last year’s DDoS attack, which was one of the biggest in Europe, did not leave any lasting damage.
While certainly unwelcome, it has nevertheless being an important learning experience - it has subsequently strengthened its infrastructure “greatly”, he said.
Image courtesy of ProtonMail.
