- Tulsi Gabbard was asked to challenge the UK Order to access Apple data.
- The UK request may endanger US data security, endangering spying threats, the letter said.
- Apple is said to face fines for discovering the “secret order” of the UK, raising concerns of intimacy.
Tulsi Gabbard swore as the director of national intelligence on Wednesday, and she has already received a warning from Congressmen for the security of American data.
A letter from Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Andy Biggs, a Republican in the Chamber Judicial Committee, asked Gabbard to seek the government of the world.
The Washington Post was the first to report on the order, which he said was issued in January, and would allow the British government to look at the coded material. Wyden and Biggs asked Gabbard to push again the “secret order”.
If Apple were to build a background for the United Kingdom, Congressmen said, it would undermine Americans’ right to intimacy, “expose them to espionage from China, Russia and other opponents,” and threatened government agencies using Apple products. The technology giant is reportedly not allowed to accept the order.
“The company faces criminal penalties that prevent it from confirming even in the US Congress the accuracy of these press reports,” the letter said.
Wyden and Biggs told Gabbard to give the UK an ultimatum: “Back from this dangerous attack on the Internet security of the US, or faces serious consequences.”
They also asked her office to answer three questions about the Trump administration awareness of the order and its understanding of the 2018 Cloud Act, which allows the US to enter bilateral agreements with foreign allies to request information data from companies without going through diplomatic channels.
Business Insider addressed the British interior office and the White House for comment. The White House did not respond immediately.
The internal office made a statement on BI on Thursday: “We do not comment on operating issues, including for example confirmation or denial of the existence of any such notice.”
Apple General Director Tim Cook has been a major supporter of encryption of data on iOS devices. The technology giant withdrew against the US government’s request for a background in the personal information of iPhone users.
Following a 2015 terrorist attack on San Bernardino, Apple was asked by the FBI to provide access to revolt data. Cook said Apple agreed with the request, but he stood firmly against building a background on the iPhone.
Cook said it would be “too dangerous to create” such a thing, given that it could fall into the hands of the hackers.
“By compromising the safety of our personal information can ultimately endanger our personal safety. That is why encryption has become so important to us all,” Cook wrote in 2016.
Read the full letter sent to Gabbard:
Dear Director Gabbard:
We write to encourage you to act firmly to protect the security of Americans’ communications from dangerous, brief effort from the United Kingdom (MB) that will undermine the rights of American intimacy and expose them in espionage from China, Russia and other opponents.
According to recent press reports, the UK internal secretary served Apple with a secret order last month, directing the company to weaken the security of its ICLUD reserve service to facilitate government spying. This directive is said to require the company to weaken its Icloud reserve service, giving the UK government “blanket skills” to access coded client files. This order is said to have been issued under the Law on the Investigation Powers of the United Kingdom 2016, commonly known as the “Snoopers Card”, which does not require the approval of a judge. Apple is said to have been admitted to receiving such an order, and the company faces criminal penalties that prevent it from confirming even in the US Congress the accuracy of these press reports.
These reported actions seriously threaten the privacy and security of the US people and the US government. Apple does not make different versions of its encryption software for each market; Apple customers in the UK use the same software as Americans. If Apple is forced to build a background on its products, it will end up in the phones, tablets and computers of Americans, undermining the security of American data, as well as countless federal, state and local government agencies that trust sensitive data for Apple products.
Hack Typhoon Salt of US telephone wire systems last year – in which President Trump’s calls and Vice President Vance were caught by China – gives a perfect example of surveillance backward risks. They will inevitably be compromised by sophisticated foreign opponents and will be used in harmful ways to US national security. While the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI confirmed last November, actors associated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were involved in “Copy of certain information subject to law enforcement requirements in US based on court orders. “
The risk does not only come from surveillance systems-When sensitive data are stored by third parties, without encryption from bottom to bottom, it is susceptible to theft when those service providers are hacked. This is exactly what happened in 2023, when the Microsoft -related hackers that store federal agencies preserve Microsoft systems. As the Board of the Department of Internal Security Department documented it, foreign spies “hit the gold espionage equivalent, enabling them to use” official accounts of many of the US government officials managing our country’s relations with the People’s Republic of China “and” dismissed approximately 60,000 emails from the State Department alone “.
After years of senior officials of the US government-by Republican and Democratic Administrations-pressuring the poorer and backstage surveillance, it seems that the US government has finally reached a long argument: strong encryption From the end to the end it defends the national national security. Indeed, in the wake of Hack Typhoon Salt, CISA issued public instructions that recommended that high -value targets, including Congress members, use only the means of communication coded from the bottom to the end, such as signal.
While the United Kingdom has been a reliable ally, the US government should not allow what is effectively a foreign internet attack developed through political means. If the United Kingdom does not immediately return this dangerous effort, we urge you to re-evaluate US-UK arrangements and security programs, as well as sharing American intelligence with the United Kingdom. While the UK Parliament Intelligence Committee described in a December public report, 2023, the United Kingdom benefits greatly from a “mutual presumption towards unlimited unlimited division [Signals Intelligence]”Between SH.BA and Great Britain and that”