Most IT pros are against UK's Investigatory Powers bill

Late last week, the UK government introduced a new Investigatory Powers bill, which requires Internet service providers to keep a record of the Internet activity of everyone in Britain, as well as cracking down on encryption and increasing government surveillance.

The initial reaction from industry professionals was mixed, but a new survey from Swiss data bank Artmotion has found that a massive 87 percent of IT leaders disagree with the government’s plan to reduce the strength of data encryption.

The research, which questioned 500 IT decision makers across the UK, also found that only 13 percent believe the government’s plans are "sensible" and 60 percent claimed that they would not trust the government with the security of their private information.

Interestingly, one in five respondents would not support any reduction in encryption technology, even for the sake of national security.

Mateo Meier, CEO of Artmotion said, "Our research highlights a growing unease amongst the IT community that the UK government is placing unspecified threats to national security ahead of the genuine risk of cyber attacks. While it’s good to see that the government has dropped its ill-conceived plans to ban encryption entirely, this updated 'Snoopers’ Charter' does little to reassure the tech community".

"We live in an age where teenagers are capable of bringing down established brand names with nothing more than a laptop, and yet the government continues to release ham-fisted legislation that will do little more than drive businesses away from the UK while simultaneously opening the nation to further potential cyber attacks", added Meier.

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