Newly appointed U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been urged by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., to oppose the UK's reported order for Apple to develop a backdoor that would enable government access to encrypted iCloud data, which they argued to be detrimental to U.S. government and citizen data security, according to The Register.
"When sensitive data is stored by third parties, without end-to-end encryption, it is vulnerable to theft when those service providers are hacked... After years of senior U.S. government officials … pushing for weaker encryption and surveillance backdoors, it seems that the U.S. government has finally come around to a position we have long argued: strong end-to-end encryption protects national security," said the lawmakers in a letter to Gabbard, who was also recommended to reconsider the U.S.'s cybersecurity dealings with the UK should the latter refuse to rescind the reported order.
Additional questions regarding the Trump administration's awareness of the UK order should also be answered by Gabbard by March 3.
