The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy. Alum at the Center of Apple's Legal Battle with the FBI | GW Law | The George Washington University. As has been widely reported, in February, a magistrate judge ordered Apple Inc. to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the people involved in the San Bernardino shootings. In a public letter, Apple CEO Tim Cook fought back against the ruling, writing that circumventing the iPhone’s encryption as the FBI requests would require creating intentionally flawed software, which would endanger customer privacy and set a dangerous precedent. Apple later filed a motion opposing the court order. Bruce Sewell, JD '86, Apple's General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Legal and Global Security, is at the center of Apple's legal efforts on the case.
He most recently testified for five hours on March 1 before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary in a hearing that also included FBI director James Comey. As part of his statement for the record, Mr. "The FBI is asking Apple to weaken the security of our products," he said. Bruce Sewell earned a JD from GW Law in 1986. Congress showed it's willing to fight the FBI on encryption. Finally | Trevor Timm | Opinion.
Members of Congress did something almost unheard of at Tuesday’s hearing on the brewing battle over encryption between Apple and the FBI: their job. Both Democrats and Republicans grilled FBI director Jim Comey about his agency’s unprecedented demand that Apple weaken the iPhone’s security protections to facilitate surveillance. This would have dire implications for smartphone users around the globe. Normally, congressional committee hearings featuring Comey are contests among the members over who can shower the FBI director with the most fawning compliments in their five-minute allotted time frame. Hard questions about the agency’s controversial tactics are avoided at all costs. One judiciary member questioned how the FBI managed to mess up so badly during the San Bernardino investigation and reset the shooter’s password, which is what kicked this whole controversy and court case in motion in the first place.
The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy - Hearings - Judiciary Committee. 2141 Rayburn House Office Building By Direction of the Chairman Full Committee From House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI): “The widespread use of strong encryption has implications both for Americans’ privacy and security. As technology companies have made great strides to enhance the security of Americans’ personal and private information, law enforcement agencies face new challenges when attempting to access encrypted information.
Americans have a right to strong privacy protections and Congress should fully examine the issue to be sure those are in place while finding ways to help law enforcement fight crime and keep us safe. “Next week, the House Judiciary Committee will continue its examination of encryption and the questions it raises for Americans and lawmakers. Witness Panel 1 Director Federal Bureau of Investigation Witness Panel 2 Senior Vice President and General Counsel Apple, Inc.
Here’s Apple’s Prepared Testimony to Congress About the FBI's iPhone Backdoor. Image: Microsiervos/Flickr The Apple-FBI saga moves from the courthouse to Congress on Tuesday, when the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing about the future of encryption. The hearing will question FBI Director James Comey, as well as Apple vice president and general counsel Bruce Sewell, New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., and Worcester Polytechnic Institute professor Susan Landau. Unfortunately, Comey and Sewell's hearings will be separate, so they won't face off directly. Apple sent reporters Sewell's prepared remarks Monday morning. While there's nothing groundbreaking in the remarks (he reiterates that helping the FBI in this case would fundamentally make all iPhones less secure), the venue change is notable. Apple argued in its legal response to the FBI that the encryption debate is one that should play out in Congress, not the courts.
Here are Sewell's prepared testimony; we'll have more tomorrow during and after the hearing. Thank you, Mr. Thank you for your time. How to Watch Apple's Congressional Hearing. Congress is finally jumping in the Apple-FBI scrum. The House Judiciary Committee will be hosting its first hearing on Tuesday on the tech giant’s refusal to cooperate in opening of the encrypted iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, who, with his wife, killed 14 people in December. The FBI and the Department of Justice would like the phone opened in the name of national security and counterterrorism. Apple is fighting on behalf of the privacy of its millions of users. What time is it and where can it be watched? The hearing will take place at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, and you can watch the proceedings on C-SPAN 3.
Subscribe now - Free phone/tablet charger worth over $60 When Newsweek reached out to C-SPAN on whether the hearing will be live streamed online, it could not fully answer. Who will attend the hearing? Surprisingly, Apple CEO Tim Cook will not be in attendance. What is Apple’s game plan? “Encryption is a good thing, a necessary thing,” reads Sewell’s testimony.