"Death to America!"
Posted on 01/13/2016 1:41:32 PM PST by Citizen Zed
The CEO makes a case for standing against the use of back doors, or intentional security vulnerabilities that let law enforcement poke into your private information.
It seems Apple CEO Tim Cook isn't shy about doling out advice to the Obama administration.
Cook is reportedly unhappy with the White House's unwillingness to take a stance on encryption, or the scrambling of emails and other messages to keep them private. According to The Intercept, he made his concerns clear to a high-level delegation of officials during a meeting in San Jose, California, last week, asking the administration to issue a statement defending the use of unbreakable encryption.
At the center of the debate is the use of back doors. These intentional openings coded into software let law enforcement officials bypass security measures and get at your data. The FBI and some administration officials argue that the tech industry should put such back doors in place so law enforcement can access communications between terrorists and protect national security. But the industry is fighting back, in part because they're afraid hackers could exploit those same back doors.
At a meeting to discuss counterterrorism, attended by representatives from companies including Facebook, Twitter, Google, DropBox, Microsoft and LinkedIn, Cook told White House officials they should state publicly "no back doors."
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Firms such as Facebook and Google are widely known to comply with legal requests from police and security agencies to help tackle serious crime and terrorism. Over the past few years, they've attempted to be more transparent about how many of these requests they receive and comply with. When it comes to encryption though, the tech industry is keen to show that it's putting users first, and it's been steadfast in its refusal to introduce vulnerabilities into otherwise impenetrable systems.
As for the White House, its position on encryption is less clear. Attorney General Loretta Lynch reportedly responded to Cook by saying there needed to be "balance" between privacy and national security.
The issue isn't going away. Last September the White House decided not to seek a legislative fix to deal with the increased use of encryption by the tech industry. A Washington Post report, however, quoted an email from the US intelligence community's top lawyer as saying the administration should be "keeping our options open."
“in part because they’re afraid hackers could exploit those same back doors”
Not could, would. There is a 100% probability that if backdoors were built into encryption standards, they would be found and exploited. No matter how long it would take to find them, the reward is so great that it would justify any expense and effort to ferret them out.
It would not be limited to hackers either. Every foreign government on the planet that can afford an intelligence apparatus would be trying to find those backdoors as well, so this would compromise our domestic security in a very fundamental way that would outweigh any potential benefits.
Looks good. Won't last. Even if it did, he's still a straight-ticket Demwit, and will use every resource available to push their agenda.
"Death to America!"
Apple has used up Steve Jobs ideas
The suitcases full of cash method works wonders for finding those “secret” back doors, especially if you’re a governmental actor.
Apple under Cook is not the same. Like you said the visionary ideas Jobs had seem to have run out with nothing new to replace it.
If DOJ takes down Apple on backdoor encryption, everything is done.
Right now they are the only ones fighting the US Gov.
Not Intel, not Google, not Microsoft.
Nah, he’ll be running it until he dies of AIDS.
I give it a month, tops. The government's security against "inside man" leaks is pitiful, and for every Snowden who makes great personal sacrifices to reveal the government's dirty deeds for principled reasons there are dozens of others who would gladly sell a backdoor key for personal profit.
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