Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says the government's encryption plans are 'moronic'

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, has labelled David Cameron's government's plans to crack down on the use of encryption in messaging and internet use as "moronic".

v3 reported that at the IP Expo event in London yesterday, Wales said of the government’s plans to curb the use of encryption technologies:

It's too late, David. This is not going to happen. The genie is out of the bottle.

It is not feasible in any sense of the word for the UK to ban end-to-end encryption. It's a completely moronic and stupid thing to do. We all have a very strong interest in a safe and secure internet.

All major traffic is going to be encrypted very soon and that's a very good thing when you think of all of the issues around stolen credit card numbers and people sniffing networks, stolen passwords and identity theft.

Wikipedia recently moved to a model which guarantees an encrypted connection anywhere in the world, something Wales hopes to encourage from other internet companies:

Cyber security is on the rise and that is an incredibly good thing. We should keep up pressure as consumers on all internet companies to keep our data safe and keep our communications secure.

HT v3

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