UK and US relations challenged over Apple backdoor.
The UK government's order for Apple to establish an encrypted user data backdoor was noted to be potentially exploited by threat actors and authoritarian nations.
According to Reuters, U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, said that as a backdoor is likely to have a global impact, the UK should not only reevaluate its Technical Capability Notice, but also permit Apple to disclose such an order to the U.S. Justice Department.
That would determine its adherence to a joint U.S.-UK deal preventing data decryption mandates for companies, said Jordan and Mast in a letter to UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
"We urge the Home Office to reconsider the issuance of TCNs that require the weakening of encryption, as such measures conflict with international human rights standards, including the European Court of Human Rights' ruling that undermining encryption violates privacy rights," said Jordan and Mast.
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
