US Legislators Push New Intelligence Chief to Fight UK iCloud Encryption Backdoor Order
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Members of key US congressional oversight committees have called on the country’s new top intelligence director to push back on the United Kingdom’s demand that Apple create a backdoor to allow it to access encrypted users data stored in iCloud by users around the globe, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Last week, we reported that the UK government recently issued a secret order under the Investigatory Powers Act, demanding that Apple provide “backdoor” access to the encrypted data protected by Apple’s Advanced Data Protection feature, which protects users’ data stored in iCloud with end-to-end encryption. The UK wants access not only to British users’ data but also to the data of all users worldwide!
However, US officials are looking to oppose the UK order. On Thursday, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Judiciary Committee, penned a letter to newly-minted National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, warning of the risks the order poses to American citizens’ privacy and security. The bipartisan letter told Gabbard that if the UK doesn’t back down, the US should consider pulling back on the intelligence sharing and cybersecurity cooperation between the two allies.
“If Apple is forced to build a backdoor in its products, that backdoor will end up in Americans’ phones, tablets, and computers,” the lawmakers wrote, as they are concerned about protecting the security of sensitive data stored on Apple devices used by government agencies.
The legislator also pointed out how encryption backdoors provided for law enforcement could be exploited by bad actors, pointing to the recent “Salt Typhoon” attacks by Chinese hackers, which exploited law enforcement surveillance features to target phone networks.
The US government must not permit what is effectively a foreign cyberattack waged through political means. If the UK does not immediately reverse this dangerous effort, we urge you to reevaluate US-UK cybersecurity arrangements and programs as well as US intelligence sharing with the UK.
Letter from Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Andy Biggs to National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard
The UK Home Secretary’s office in January served Apple with a technical capability notice, ordering the Cupertino firm to provide unfettered access to customer data under the sweeping UK Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, which requires companies to provide access to data to allow British law enforcement to collect evidence when needed.
The order covered data stored by Apple’s users around the globe, not only in the United Kingdom. Such an order is quite concerning to privacy advocates, particularly coming from a “free” country’s government leaders. While several countries have in the past attempted to force backdoor access to encrypted data, the demands have been limited to users inside of the country making the “request,” not to data stored by users globally.
The British order, which requires Apple to provide blanket access to all users’ materials, not specific accounts, would establish a precedent, allowing governments around the globe to force companies like Apple and Google to be weaponized against global citizens.
Apple has long promised its customers that their data is safe and that it will never provide backdoor access to their data when it is end-to-end encrypted.
