Attorney General Lynch: Feds don’t want 'back door' into iPhones

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is insisting the government doesn't want a "back door" to break or weaken Apple's encryption. “We do not want a back door into Apple or anyone else’s technology. What we are asking for is for Apple to comply with a valid court order,” Attorney General Lynch told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “We are not asking them to break encryption. We are not asking them to weaken encryption,” she continued.

Apple is opposing a controversial court order demanding that it write software disabling a key security component on the iPhone of San Bernardino (CA) shooter Syed Rizwan Farook to allow the FBI to hack it. In a separate case in New York, the Justice Department is appealing a recent decision by a Brooklyn magistrate preventing it from forcing Apple to provide access to an older model iPhone. Apple argues that the access demanded by the government in San Bernardino would set a dangerous precedent that could endanger citizens’ privacy. Further, it argues that the government is demanding it build a “back door” that would create vulnerabilities in its encryption, which criminals could exploit on any of its devices. Attorney General Lynch pushed back on those arguments, echoing previous claims by FBI Director James Comey that any workaround to encryption it is seeking from Apple will be unique and confined to the individual phone in question. “Every platform is different and presents different issues, and the response to the government should be as narrowly tailored as possible,” Attorney General Lynch said.