POLICE DEPARTMENTS DECIDE TO ENCRYPT THEIR RADIO COMMUNICATIONS; PRESS AND CRIMINALS SEEM WORRIED

Local reporters will be in a weak position for their work due to this measure of the Colorado police

Network security and ethical hacking specialists from the International Institute of Cyber Security report that at least ten of the police agencies in Colorado, U.S. have decided to implement encryption in all their radio communications, as previously applied only to operations considered ‘sensitive’. Because of this new policy, journalists will no longer be able to use scanners or mobile applications to track police calls.

“Applying encryption to our communications will improve the security and effectiveness of police departments,” said Colorado state officials. “Not only were journalists using this kind of technology, also criminals and suspects took advantage of listening to our calls,” officials added.

However, network security experts consider that this mainly affects journalists, as it will be more difficult for them to go to the places where the facts relevant to their work are happening, reason to argue that the Police agencies are limiting transparency in their tasks.

Still, this is not something that privacy activists or some cybersecurity firm consider intrinsically wrong; communication encryption is, in fact, something desirable today. Encryption protects individuals and organizations sensitive information, such as financial data, online purchases or even identities, against malicious hackers, as considered by network security experts.

In addition, these days there are multiple data security incidents involving organizations of any size that lack the right protocols and information security measures, malicious actors of all kinds are always at the stalking of weaknesses that allow access to information belonging to millions of people.

People should really be aware about the importance of their information privacy, just as someone closes the doors of their house with key before leaving; online service users must protect their data with measures such as passwords or multi-factor authentication. Therefore, although this measure of the Colorado police may be controversial, it could also be beneficial to many.