BACKGROUND paras 2.1 to 2.5
BACKGROUND
2.1 Information security technologies have allowed electronic commerce to flourish, enabling businesses and individuals to secure and protect their electronic data and to maintain the privacy of their electronic communications. Individuals going about their lawful business, both openly and privately, use these technologies every day.
2.2 Terrorists and criminals use the same technologies that afford businesses and individuals' legitimate security and privacy to protect their electronic data and the privacy of their electronic communications, to conceal evidence of their unlawful conduct and to evade detection or prosecution.
2.3 At its simplest the protection of electronic data is undertaken using a password which, if correct, gives access to the data in an intelligible form. More complex applications use cryptography both to protect access to the data and to put the data itself into a form that is unintelligible without the correct password or key.
2.4 Cryptographic technologies, which have been essential to the success of ecommerce and online businesses, have various uses:
- - guaranteeing that the originator or recipient of data is the
person they claim to be;
- Availability - assurance that the systems responsible for delivering, storing and processing data are accessible when needed, by those who need them
- Confidentiality - protecting data to ensure that its contents cannot be read by anyone other than an intended recipient;
- Integrity - guaranteeing that data has not been accidentally or deliberately corrupted;
- Non-repudiation - preventing the denial of previous commitments or actions
2.5 Primarily it is application of cryptography to the confidentiality of data which is exploited by terrorists and criminals to protect their data, whether it is stored data, on a disk or other storage device, or data being communicated from one to another or from one to many others. The measures in Part III are intended to ensure that the ability of public authorities to protect the public and the effectiveness of their other statutory powers are not undermined by the use of technologies to protect electronic information.