Sir John Sawyers, who stepped down last November said: "There is a dilemma because the general public, politicians and technology companies, to some extent, want us to be able to monitor the activities of terrorists and other evil-doers but they don't want their own activities to be open to any such monitoring".
Sir John said the Internet had to be open in the same way as communities are in the real world. Speaking to an audience of business leaders in London, he said: "The security community has done a fantastic job keeping threats at bay, but if I was to sit here and ask ‘will the goalkeepers of the police and security services foil every single attempt to score a goal?', the answer is no. At some point a threat will get through".
Scary Quote of the Day: "We cannot stop terrorism unless we spy on innocent people," Former MI6 Chief http://t.co/yLAC1okvxJ
— Blogs of War (@BlogsofWar) January 21, 2015
Terror threats, an excuse to erode privacy
"The terrorism stick is being used again and again to reduce our privacy and freedoms", says Graham Cluley, a computer security expert. "According to John Sawyer, there's no other way of stopping terrorism unless new surveillance laws are passed and innocent people are spied on".
Cluley doesn't believe new surveillance laws are necessary.
"There are systems already in place and a legal process to get hold of information from the big Internet companies. What David Cameron and others are calling for is the removal of a secure communication system".
ex-MI6 John Sawers, says intel agencies and tech companies need to share data in order to prevent terrorist attacks. pic.twitter.com/UY0tSHGUAi
— Flemington Stazione (@Flemington455) January 21, 2015
The removal of a secure communication system would compromise big companies — not just people, according to Graham Cluley.
"My concern is that if these secure systems are weakened, personal information belonging to innocent people will at a risk from hackers who will exploit security weaknesses".
Technological Backwater
"And that threat is not just for individuals, but for companies as well. If a big multi-national company needs to communicate privately — directors will question how comfortable they feel operating from a country that prohibits private communication and can legally snoop on conversations. Financial organisations will say, ‘City of London? We'll give that a miss'. They've got the most to lose".
Graham Cluley says Britain would become a ‘technological backwater' if it became illegal to sell software that didn't allow the British government to snoop via a back door.
"You'd have to sell a different iPhone and different Windows package with this back door software integrated. Apple, Google and Microsoft aren't going to do that. It would turn the UK into a technological backwater".
According to Graham Cluley, new legislation has the potential to push criminal activity deeper into cyber space.
"Criminals won't use the software that had been government approved; they would download a new code in order to communicate securely.
"There's no way they can stop the way people use computers or smart phones. The only people who would be intercepted would be your Auntie Hidla and members of the public who don't care and just carry on using social media".
The warning from Sir John follows the recent call from the head of MI5 for big Internet companies to help the security services fight terrorism. Director General Andrew Parker said that MI5 needs to continue to be able to penetrate suspected terrorists' communications and that groups like ISIL make full use of social media.
"That means having the right tools, legal powers and the assistance of companies which hold relevant data. Currently this picture is patchy".
The Counter Terror and Security Bill is currently being debated in parliament.
