Law enforcement access to password protected and/or encrypted mobile data

The use of mobile phones in the commission of crime and terrorism pose serious investigative challenges to law enforcement agencies across the world. The discussion deals primarily with the extent a mobile phone service provider and/or or messaging applications provider and/or manufacturer must assist a law enforcement agency in gaining access to mobile data, specifically where the data is encrypted and/or password protected. It should be established whether a mobile phone service and/or applications provider and/or manufacturer must design security and/or privacy measures in such a way that law enforcement may gain access to the encrypted data. It may be argued that national security interests regarding the investigation of serious crimes such as kidnapping, child pornography, corruption and terrorism outweigh user privacy and user security. Terrorism affects all countries globally and in many instances result in the indiscriminate killing of a large number of people as illustrated by the Paris November 2015, the US December 2015, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Brussels and Pakistan March 2016 killings: Although a law enforcement agency is pressurized to gather as much as possible evidence to investigate such heinous acts and prevent future attacks, the mobile phone evidence must be gathered within a legal framework that provides checks and balances to prevent the development of a police state resulting in the erosion or elimination of human rights. It is necessary to debate whether banning encryption and/or compelling a provider to have the technology to decrypt encrypted mobile communications or override password protected mobile data would serve as an investigative solution in the interest of national security or whether it would ultimately result in weakening user security and privacy to such an extent that all users around the world would be vulnerable to unlawful intrusions.