The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans' Security and Privacy

Tags: 2010s Going Dark Hearing Law Enforcement

Published: March 2016

URL: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU00/20160301/104573/HHRG-114-JU00-Transcript-20160301.pdf

Abstract: On March 1, 2016, the House Judiciary Committee of the 114th Congress held a hearing entitled, The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy. The key focus of the hearing was answering the question: How do we deploy ever stronger, more effective encryption without unduly preventing lawful access to communications of criminals and terrorists intent on doing us harm? The Committee began the hearing by nothing its chief concern, that “[a]doption of new communications technologies by those intending harm to the American people is outpacing law enforcement’s technological capability to access those communications in legitimate criminal and national security investigations.” The concern was contextualized in the in the aftermath of the San Bernadino terrorist attack and the resultant tensions between the FBI and Apple over whether the All Writs Act compelled the company to assist in breaking the encryption on the alleged suspect’s iPhone. The hearing featured testimony, on both sides of the issue, from: FBI Director, James Comey; Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Apple, Bruce Sewell; Professor of Cybersecurity Policy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dr. Susan Landau; and District Attorney for New York County, Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.