Wait, what? I know, you may be rubbing your eyes and thinking that you’ve perhaps entered Crazytown, but here we are. In response to the legal posturing between the FBI and Apple regarding the encryption of one particular iPhone, Apple has found a rather unlikely kindred spirit — former NSA Director and CIA Chief Gen. Michael Hayden.
In an interview with Wall Street Journal Associate Editor John Bussey, Mr. Hayden went on to explain his feelings about unbreakable end-to-end encryption and they weren’t what many people probably would have thought. Saying he understands both side of the encryption debate, when asked about his stance he said flat out “I think (FBI Director) Jim Comey’s wrong.”
Comey’s logic, according to Hayden, is flawed because:
(his logic) is based on the belief that he’s the main body, and that you should accommodate your movements to the movements of him, which is the main body. And I’m telling you, with regard to the cyber domain, he’s not — you are.
He goes on to discuss how America as a country is more secure when its citizens have unbreakable end-to-end encryption, but that he understands why Comey feels the way he does, and were he in Comey’s shoes he’d likely feel the same way.
While the vast majority of the interview sounds like someone with ideals right in line with Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai when it comes to cell phone encryption, Hayden ends on a slightly more expected tone when he recounts his time in the NSA using bulk data collection and metadata when other types of backdoor access was not provided.
Time will tell how the FBI eventually cracks the security of the iPhone. Maybe John McAfee will come through in a pinch, or perhaps the FBI will look to some… other avenues.
You can watch the entire interview with Gen. Michael Hayden in the video below:
[button link=”https://theweek.com/speedreads/606641/exnsa-cia-chief-michael-hayden-sides-apple-fbi-iphone-encryption-fight” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Via: The Week[/button]
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