For years, lawmakers have sought to pressure Apple to create a “backdoor” for law enforcement to access the iPhones and MacBooks of suspected terrorists or criminals. The argument is enticing: create a secure entry point to be used by select members of the intelligence community to prevent mass destruction. Yet this over-simplistic explanation clouds the dangerous precedent such a step would set and the ramifications it may have for everyday users.
Apple’s competitive edge comes in large part from its superior encryption and bug protection. While the company has so far resisted government calls to create a formal “backdoor” to its devices, the legal use of wiretapping (established by the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 amid concerns with organized crime and drug trafficking) creates a hole in its otherwise encrypted, secure products. This month, hackers tied to the Chinese Communist Party exploited that gap. In a widespread data breach of AT&T, Lumen, and Verizon infrastructure used for court-ordered wiretapping, hackers potentially accessed Americans’ private phone calls. This attack demonstrates how “backdoors” weaken American security against attacks from hackers or foreign entities. But the CCP-enabled hack is child’s play compared to the privacy invasion that a “backdoor” could leave open to cyber attackers.
Following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the former president renewed calls for Apple to open up a “backdoor” to the iPhones of suspected and detained criminals (in this case, his attempted assassins). While seemingly an obvious solution to this disturbing incident of political violence, and a reasonable take by someone who survived an attack on his life, Trump’s policy recommendation should not be further propagated in coherence with the broadband attack.
“Backdoors” compromise the very systems they aim to protect, exposing critical infrastructure to malicious actors, including our foreign adversaries. Offering a glaring vulnerability in the otherwise refined iOS and macOS servers, a gap for law enforcement surveillance would invite these threats to steal critical digital infrastructure and data. Those aiming to reinforce our national security should take this recent breach to heart and realize that the immediate threat of cyberattacks is a priority to preserving American prosperity. The CCP’s cyberwarfare ambitions cannot be underestimated. To quote Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “The cyber threat posed by the Chinese government is massive. China’s hacking program is larger than that of every other major nation, combined.”
Additionally, the creation of a “backdoor” mechanism sets dangerous precedent for law enforcement to circumvent the rule of law regarding privacy rights and due process. Lawful wiretapping undermines our constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Americans should reject the false security of surveillance loopholes and champion policies that truly safeguard both national security and civil liberties. As our country is increasingly shaped by the digital environment, we must uphold our existing legal processes and protect our digital future. The AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen breach illuminates that justifications for such a legal framework fall short and offer safety in name only.
True protection against data breaches and further cyberattacks by the CCP will depend on robust private-public partnership between tech companies and the intelligence community. Invasion of individual privacy and undermining the business model of American innovation, such as Apple, will not protect us from those who seek to undermine the stability of our country.
In wake of this reach hack, Congress has jumped to “updat[e] federal baseline cybersecurity standards” with punitive measures against telecom companies that do not comply. Yet, little discussion has been paid to how wiretapping and other criminal justice efforts are undermining our national security strategy. A careful reconsideration by the FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) of the processes and systems used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) could prove worthwhile to securing our digital data from the CCP. Mutual cooperation, and respect for constitutional rights, is the only path forward amid the challenges of our lifetime. To quote Benjamin Franklin, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”