AppleInsider Staff
Apple's top lawyer is scheduled to appear before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee next week, presumably to offer testimony on the pitfalls of granting law enforcement privileged access to encrypted devices.
The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on Thursday published the names of witnesses slated to offer testimony at a hearing entitled "Deciphering the Debate Over Encryption: Industry and Law Enforcement Perspectives," noting Apple counsel Bruce Sewell will lead off the second of two panels set for next Tuesday.
Reuters reported on the announcement earlier today.
Taking part in the first panel will be FBI Executive Assistant Director for Science and Technology Amy Hess, who is to be joined by other law enforcement officials including Thomas Galati, chief of the NYPD's Intelligence Bureau. Government representatives are likely to push for privileged access to data and consumer devices in the name of public safety, the same argument raised by FBI Director James Comey relayed during a congressional hearing last month.
Amit Yoran, president of RSA Security, and noted cryptography expert Matt Blaze are among the security experts slated to appear with Sewell. The second panel is expected to argue the merits of keeping encrypted system completely secure.
Next week will mark Sewell's second appearance in front of ranking lawmakers in as many months, following testimony provided to the House Judiciary Committee in March. At the time, Apple's legal chief characterized the encryption issue as "an arms race with criminals, cyber terrorists and hackers." By implementing strong encryption protocols and keeping those methods free of backdoors, Apple has created a secure environment for its customers, he said.
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5 Comments
At least we won't have to hear the nonsense that comes out of Comey. Matt is going to tear them apart. Let the hunger games begin.
There's nobody in Congress who can technically debate either Amit or Matt. There's nothing in Amy's FBI press release that says she has any technical expertise in anything. She started as an agent and was promoted through the administrative channel. Her law enforcement officials will only be able to whine about needed access to things they don't understand. Of course, none of this matters because Congress will immediately fall asleep because they won't understand a word the real technical people are saying. The only way we win is if the technical experts can discuss things at a sixth grade level or say things that are related to something the others can understand, like losing their email or credit cards. If they can't do that, the FBI will win.
Funny, I though "public safety" was the primary reason for encrypting transactions and devices in the first place...