Oct. 11 2017 3:35 PM

The Justice Department Just Reignited Its Fight With Apple Over iPhone Encryption

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at FBI headquarters on Sept. 28.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The U.S. government continues to have a bone to pick out with Apple. On Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein delivered a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy where he took the opportunity to reignite tensions with Apple in the company's refusal to help the FBI break the encryption by using an iPhone used by Syed Farook , the terrorist who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in 2015.

Rosenstein pressed tech companies to create their products in what he called responsible encryption,” which may allow police force to with less effort get data off a device of someone under investigation, like if there exists a search warrant or possibly a wiretap order. But security researchers and privacy advocates have long argued such exceptions are essentially back doors.” And making it easier for law enforcement to break in the encryption makes it easier in turn for a malicious actor to get that back door and perform same.

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The data on the phone was encrypted, but Apple had to be able to assist the government in obtaining that data,” said Rosenstein, while he took a short time to recall what went down with the FBI's very public brawl with Apple over enhancing the government get into Farook's iPhone. The government sought Apple's voluntary assistance. Apple rejected the government's request, although it had the technical capability to help you.”

Ultimately, the FBI found a way to hack in the iPhone without Apple's help , nevertheless the government's frustration with Apple's refusal to cooperate doesn't appear to have dwindled. Rosenstein complained that on the past year, the FBI has been unable to locate roughly 7,500 devices published to its Computer Analysis and Response Team despite having the legal authority to locate them.

That should be incredibly frustrating for police force officers, though the federal government hasn't shown to be very trustworthy in handling the sensitive back doors and vulnerabilities which it already stockpiles to crack software and device security, including encryption. Just yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that in 2015 hackers being employed by the Russian government stole a trove of National Security Agency hacking tools and other highly classified files off a government contractor's computer. Then during the warm months of 2016, a secretive hacking group referred to as the Shadow Brokers went in terms of to publish a collection of hacking tools which it stole in the NSA. Those hacking tools included many zero-day exploits, that are vulnerabilities in software, hardware, or maybe a whole computer network who have never been previously discovered.

The last thing any of major tech company probably wants at this time is to be complicit in the massive hack of the users. Facebook, Google, and Twitter are typical under Congress' microscope for your role their ad and social media sharing tools played in helping Russian government backed groups manipulate, and frequently deceive, U.S. voters inside run up for the election. All three companies are actually invited to testify to the Senate on Nov. 1.

But the current congressional scrutiny may additionally be the reason why Rosenstein decided this is the right moment to bring back the debate. Silicon Valley isn't inside the best political looking at Capitol Hill today. Beyond the Russia probe, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle happen to be calling for an investigation into whether the major tech companies—like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook—have become monopolies and so are in violation of antitrust law, too. The Justice Department might be looking to join the chorus and push for Congress to consider reforms it'd want to see from Silicon Valley, too.