The Dutch House of Representatives accepted a proposal by the party D66 to donate 500 000 euros to open source projects related to encryption. The proposal should help strengthen government's encryption instead of weakening it.
The House of Representatives agreed Tuesday on a broader proposal[1] than D66 originally[2] put forth in October. Back then the proposal was to donate half a million to the OpenSSL project. Now it's undetermined to which project the money will go. "The ministry of Economic Affairs has to, in consultation with experts in the field, select projects that are crucial for the international Internet infrastructure", writes the accepted amendment.
The proposal does name examples like OpenSSL, LibreSSL and PolarSSL. These kinds of projects typically depend on volunteers, but millions of people worldwide benefit from it. The text explicitly goes into the attempts of some governments to undermine encryption, for example with back doors. Critics point out that not just intelligence agencies but also criminals could use these.
The House of Representatives wants to counter these developments with the donation and support strengthening encryption. The money will come from the IT policy budget from the ministry of Economic Affairs.
The Dutch House of Representatives accepted a proposal by the party D66 to donate 500 000 euros to open source projects related to encryption. The proposal should help strengthen government's encryption instead of weakening it.
The House of Representatives agreed Tuesday on a broader proposal[1] than D66 originally[2] put forth in October. Back then the proposal was to donate half a million to the OpenSSL project. Now it's undetermined to which project the money will go. "The ministry of Economic Affairs has to, in consultation with experts in the field, select projects that are crucial for the international Internet infrastructure", writes the accepted amendment.
The proposal does name examples like OpenSSL, LibreSSL and PolarSSL. These kinds of projects typically depend on volunteers, but millions of people worldwide benefit from it. The text explicitly goes into the attempts of some governments to undermine encryption, for example with back doors. Critics point out that not just intelligence agencies but also criminals could use these.
The House of Representatives wants to counter these developments with the donation and support strengthening encryption. The money will come from the IT policy budget from the ministry of Economic Affairs.
Original: http://tweakers.net/nieuws/106723/open-encryptieprojecten-kr...
Links in the article:
[1] The proposal (Dutch, from the House of Representatives' own website): http://www.tweedekamer.nl/downloads/document?id=f8a573f0-285...
[2] A news message about the original proposal (Dutch): http://tweakers.net/nieuws/105739/d66-wil-half-miljoen-euro-...
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