- Tulsi Gabbard was invited to challenge the United Kingdom order for Apple data.
- The United Kingdom’s request could compromise American data security, risking threats to spy, according to the letter.
- Apple would have faced sanctions for having disclosed the “secret order” of the United Kingdom, which raises confidentiality problems.
Tulsi Gabbard was sworn in As Director of National Intelligence on Wednesday, and she has already received a warning from Congress members concerning the security of Americans.
A letter from Ron Wyden, Democrat of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Andy Biggs, a republican of the Chamber’s Judicial Committee, urged Gabbard to demand that the British government withdraw an order which will grant them access to the cloud of all apple user in the world.
The Washington Post was the first to report On the order, which said that it was issued in January and which would allow the British government to see the encrypted equipment. Wyden and Biggs asked Gabbard to repel “secret order”.
If Apple was to build a stolen door for the United Kingdom, said Congress members, it would undermine the right of Americans to privacy, “would expose them to spying by China, Russia and other adversaries” And threaten government agencies that use Apple products. The technology giant would not be authorized to recognize the order.
“The company faces criminal sanctions which prevent it from confirming even in the American Congress the accuracy of these press reports,” said the letter.
Wyden and Biggs told Gabbard to give the United Kingdom an ultimatum: “Descend this dangerous attack on American cybersecurity, or face serious consequences.”
They also asked his office to answer three questions about the awareness of the Trump administration to order and its understanding of the 2018 Cloud Act, which allows the United States to conclude bilateral agreements with foreign allies To request information on business data without going through diplomatic channels.
Business Insider contacted the British Home Office and the White House to comment. The White House did not immediately respond.
The Home Office provided a statement to Bi on Thursday: “We do not start operational questions, including for example confirming or denies the existence of these opinions.”
CEO of Apple Tim Cook was a great supporter of data encryption on iOS devices. The technology giant has rejected the US government’s request for a stolen door in personal information from the iPhone users.
After a 2015 Terrorist attack in San BernardinoThe FBI asked Apple to give access to the shooter’s data. Cook said that Apple was compliant with demand, but he was firmly against the construction of a stolen door on the iPhone.
Cook said that it would be “too dangerous to create” such a thing, since it could fall into the hands of the pirates.
“Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal security in danger. This is why encryption has become so important to all of us,” Cook wrote in 2016.
Read the full letter sent to Gabbard:
Dear Gabbard director:
We write to urge you to act decisively to protect the security of the communications of the Americans against dangerous and short views of the United Kingdom (United Kingdom) which will know the rights to the privacy of the Americans and will expose them to the ‘China espionage, Russia and other adversaries.
According to recent press reports, the interior secretary of the United Kingdom served Apple a secret order last month, ordering the company to weaken the security of its iCloud safeguard service to facilitate government spying . This directive would have forced the company to weaken the encryption of its iCloud safeguard service, giving the British government “general capacity” to access customer’s encrypted files. This order would have been made under the 2016 law in the United Kingdom in investigation, commonly known as “Snoopers Charter”, which does not require the approval of a judge. Apple would have created to recognize that he has received such an order, and the company faces criminal sanctions which prevent him from confirming even in the American Congress the accuracy of these press reports.
These reported actions seriously threaten the privacy and security of the American people and the American government. Apple does not make different versions of its encryption software for each market; Apple customers in the United Kingdom use the same software as Americans. If Apple is obliged to build a stolen door in its products, this door -stolen door will be found in the phones, tablets and computers of the Americans, undermining the security of the data of the Americans, as well as the countless federal, state and local government agencies that entrust Apple products sensitive.
Last year, the hacking of Typhoon Salt listening systems for American telephone carriers – in which the calls of President Trump and the vice -president Vance were exploited by China – provides a perfect example of the dangers of the hand- surveillance work. They will inevitably be compromised by sophisticated foreign opponents and exploited in a harmful manner for American national security. As the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI confirmed last November, the actors affiliated to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were involved in the “copy of certain information that have been submitted to American law application in accordance with judicial orders “.
The risk does not only come from electronic listening systems – when sensitive data is stored by third parties, without end -to -end encryption, it is vulnerable to theft when these service providers are hacked. This is exactly what happened in 2023, when hackers affiliated to the RPC burst into Microsoft systems storing emails from federal agencies. As the cyber-security review committee of the Ministry of Internal Security, foreign spies “have struck the Espionage of Gold”, documents to access “the official messaging accounts of the official messaging accounts of the official messaging accounts of” Many of the highest officials of the US government managing the relationship of our country with the People’s Republic of China “and” downloaded around 60,000 e-mails from the only state department “.
After years of senior US government officials – republican and democratic administrations – pressure for lower encryption and surveillance times, it seems that the United States government has finally reached a position that we have long supported: a fort end -to -end encryption protects the national national security. Indeed, in the wake of the hack of Typhon de Sel, Cisa published public councils which recommended that the high -value targets, including the members of the Congress, only use encrypted communication tools from start to finish, as a signal.
Although the United Kingdom has been an ally of trust, the United States government should not allow what is indeed a foreign cyber attack led by political means. If the United Kingdom does not immediately revers this dangerous effort, we urge you to reassess the United States-US cybersecurity arrangements and cybersecurity programs as well as the sharing of American intelligence with the United Kingdom. As the British Parliament Information Supervisory Committee described it in a public report in December 2023, the United Kingdom greatly benefits from a “mutual presumption to the without restriction of (Signals Intelligence)” between the United States And the United Kingdom and this ”