American lawmakers are demanding that newly appointed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reaffirm her firm stance on encryption backdoors. Senator Ron Wyden and Congressman Andy Biggs have sent a letter urging her to oppose the British government’s request for Apple to weaken iCloud security.
The United Kingdom is leveraging its authority under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016—commonly referred to as the Snooper’s Charter—to gain access to encrypted iCloud data. Lawmakers warn that should Apple concede, it would not only undermine the cybersecurity of ordinary American citizens but also compromise the security of U.S. government institutions.
The letter emphasizes that Apple does not develop separate versions of its encryption software for different markets. Thus, any weakening of protections in one jurisdiction would inevitably jeopardize the security of users worldwide. The senators’ primary concern is that if Apple is compelled to embed a backdoor into its products, it would endanger the sensitive data of American citizens as well as federal, state, and local government agencies.
As a stark warning, the legislators cite the 2023 cyberattack in which Chinese hackers breached Microsoft’s systems, exfiltrating tens of thousands of emails belonging to the U.S. government. This incident, they argue, underscores the critical necessity of end-to-end encryption (E2EE), as data stored without it remains highly vulnerable to cyber threats.
The lawmakers further caution that should the U.K. persist with its initiative, the United States may reconsider its cybersecurity agreements and even its intelligence-sharing partnership with Britain. They explicitly state that the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. must be built on trust, and actions such as these erode that trust.
To intensify their pressure, Wyden and Biggs remind Gabbard of her own remarks during recent Senate hearings, in which she asserted that weakening encryption threatens civil liberties and creates exploitable loopholes for malicious actors. The legislators call on Gabbard to uphold these principles through decisive action, issuing a stark ultimatum to the British government: either abandon the backdoor proposal or face severe consequences.
Additionally, the senators demand to know whether the Trump administration was aware of the U.K.’s plans and why Congress was not informed. Gabbard has until March 3 to respond. According to the letter’s authors, Apple is prohibited from even acknowledging London’s request, while Gabbard’s office has yet to comment on the matter.
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