The FBI and Apple, entrenched in their positions in the debate in Congress – Yahoo Finance Spain

San Francisco (USA), March 1 (EFE) .- The FBI today likened the impenetrable encryption devices Apple (London: 0R2V. L -. news) to a “vicious guard dog” that complicates its fight against terrorism and Apple warned that the security of hundreds of millions of users in jeopardy if access requests the Government to unlock a phone

“We see more and more cases where we believe there is significant evidence that reside on a phone, tablet or computer tests that can make an offender is convicted or acquitted, “today said FBI Director James Comey, during a hearing before the Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives.

“the inability to access these tests will have significant in our ability to identify, arrest and prosecute those criminals repercussions,” warned Comey.

the head of the FBI insisted that the current encryption phones and other devices “poses real capacity of the authorities barriers to seeking information in specific cases that pose a potential threat to national security”.

Comey and agency heads are fully legal battle with Apple over access to an iPhone phone used by one of the authors of the shooting in December last year in the Californian city of San Bernardino, which left 14 dead and more 20 injured, in a case under investigation as terrorism.

the government wants Apple to design a software that allows you to slip past security phone and access the data stored on it, a request which the technology company refuses to argue that asking the FBI would undermine the security of all phones.

“the FBI has asked a court to order us to give something that we have, that we create a operating system that does not exist because it would be too dangerous, “he said today during the said hearing the principal legal adviser to Apple, Bruce Sewell.

Sewell insisted, in line with the provisions and by the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, the tool asks you develop the FBI would open the door to access all iPhone phones.

“the FBI is asking Apple to weaken the safety of their products. Hackers and cybercriminals could use that to wreak havoc on our personal privacy and security, “said Sewell.

An Apple representative declined, too, that the company resist access requests from the Government for reasons marketing, an argument which, he said, makes her “blood boil”.

“we are doing this because we believe that protecting the security and privacy of hundreds of millions of iPhones is right,” he said the attorney.

Sewell said, moreover, that the dispute over encryption should be resolved in Congress and not the courts, but did not propose any specific legislation to address the problem.

the Republican chairman of the National security Committee of the House of Representatives, Michael McCaul, and Sen. Mark Warner, the Intelligence Committee of the Senate, introduced a bill on Monday to create a commission on digital security.

Meanwhile, the Democratic senator from California, Dianne Feinstein, and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the Senate, Republican Richard Burr, have advanced to introduce legislation to require companies to provide data encrypted to the government if authorities have a warrant.

Apple unveiled on Thursday last week formally to the request of a US federal court to help the FBI to unlock an iPhone phone opposition and asked the court to annul an order, which, in their view, violates the Constitution.