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[h=4]FBI director warns encryption makes information warrant-proof[/h]FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that Congress must decide if it wants Apple and other companies to have the power to bar law enforcement from obtaining evidence of crimes from encrypted devices.
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Some experts think this ruling could set a precedent for future cases involving tech companies. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
FBI Director James Comey(Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP)
WASHINGTON<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— FBI Director James Comey said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Tuesday that Congress<span style="color: Red;">*</span>must decide if it wants Apple and other tech companies to have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the power to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>effectively bar law enforcement from obtaining evidence of crime and terrorism<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>encrypted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>smartphones and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>other electronic devices.
"The core question is this: Once all of the requirements and safeguards of the laws and the Constitution have been met, are we comfortable with technical design decisions that result in barriers to obtaining evidence of a crime?" Comey asked the House Judiciary Committee.
Comey said the government is not trying to expand its surveillance power, but he is concerned about the emergence of "warrant-proof spaces" where critical information cannot be found by law enforcement.
"Rather we are asking to ensure that we can continue to obtain electronic information and evidence pursuant to the legal authority that Congress has provided us to keep America safe," he said.
Comey testified at a hearing in which the FBI faced off with Apple for the first time since the federal government<span style="color: Red;">*</span>went to court to try to force the tech giant to unlock a terrorist's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>encrypted iPhone.
Comey and Apple's senior vice president and general counsel, Bruce Sewell, were witnesses<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Judiciary Committee hearing titled "The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans' Security and Privacy."
The difficulty of finding that balance<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has been underscored by the legal battle between the FBI and Apple over whether the government can force the company<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to create software<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to unlock the iPhone of a dead terrorist who shot 14 people to death and wounded more than 20 others in San Bernardino, Calif. in December.
Comey said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the FBI's request would only affect the iPhone of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>terrorist Syed Farook, who was killed along with his wife in a shootout with police.
But<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Apple warned Tuesday that writing new code to unlock Farook's phone<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will create a backdoor into the encrypted iPhones of millions of consumers, making the devices vulnerable to hackers, cyber criminals and government surveillance.
"Do we want to put a limit on the technology that protects our data, and therefore our privacy and our safety, in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks?"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sewell testified. "Should the FBI be allowed to stop Apple, or any company, from offering the American people the safest and most secure product it can make?"
A federal magistrate<span style="color: Red;">*</span>ordered Apple earlier this month to cooperate with the FBI to unlook Farook's phone. Federal agents believe the phone<span style="color: Red;">*</span>could contain answers<span style="color: Red;">*</span>about whether Farook<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and his wife<span style="color: Red;">*</span>worked with others to plot their attack.
Apple filed a motion last Thursday to dismiss the government's request, charging that it is in conflict with Americans' constitutional rights to free speech and to avoid self-incrimination. Google,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft are among the tech companies supporting Apple's position.
USA TODAY
Apple motion to deny FBI to be backed by Google, Microsoft
As the dispute plays out in court, members of Congress are trying to decide what<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— if anything<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— they should do legislatively to try to resolve the encryption debate.
"Americans have a right to strong privacy protections and Congress should fully examine the issue to be sure those are in place while finding ways to help law enforcement fight crime and keep us safe," Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the panel's senior Democrat,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said in a joint statement.
Lawmakers are proposing two very different solutions to the dilemma.
House Homeland Security Committee<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Chairman<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a former tech entrepreneur who serves on the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Senate Intelligence Committee, introduced a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bill Monday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>create a national commission on digital security.
The 16-member<span style="color: Red;">*</span>panel, modeled after the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>9/11 Commission that recommended how<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to prevent terrorist<span style="color: Red;">*</span>attacks,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>would be made up of civil liberty<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and privacy advocates, law enforcement and intelligence officials, professors, lawyers, tech executives, and computer science and cryptography experts.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Apple has expressed support for the idea.
Taking a different approach,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Senate<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., plan to introduce legislation<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to require companies to provide encrypted data to the government if law enforcement officials have a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>court order.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said encryption poses a problem for state and local police and prosecutors trying to catch and convict criminals.
"Technology companies should not be able to dictate who can access key evidence in criminal investigations," Vance<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said in written testimony to the Judiciary Committee. "No device or company, no matter how popular, should be able to exempt itself from court obligations unilaterally. And they should not be able to write their own laws..I urge Congress to enact a national solution."
USA TODAY
Bipartisan encryption bill seeks to end feud between FBI, tech industry
A<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cybersecurity expert said the best thing Congress can<span style="color: Red;">*</span>do is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>give the FBI the resources it needs to create<span style="color: Red;">*</span>an investigative center with agents who have "a deep technical understanding of modern telecommunications technologies."
"The FBI must learn to investigate smarter,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said Susan Landau, professor of cybersecurity policy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"Congress<span style="color: Red;">*</span>can provide it with the resources and guidance to help it do so. Bring FBI investigative capabilities into the 21st<span style="color: Red;">*</span>century. That’s what is needed here<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— not undermining the best security that any consumer device has to date."
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Apple to help the FBI break into the iPhone of one of the killers in the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings. Video by Ryan Connelly Holmes for USA TODAY
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