A British government refusal to confirm whether it has issued an order to bypass encryption and access customer data held by Apple has been deemed farcical by Ben Jaffey, a lawyer for civil rights groups. The comment was made at a London tribunal, where the issue of a technical capability notice (TCN) has been clouded in secrecy.
In January last year, Britain issued an order, known as a technical capability notice, for a backdoor to allow it access to encrypted cloud backups of data of US and British citizens. That demand was dropped following months of negotiations with US President Donald Trump’s administration, but in July Britain issued a second notice that applied just to Apple’s UK customers.
Ben Jaffey stated that the government’s position has become farcical, as the information is already public knowledge. US politicians and officials have publicly referred to the original notice, and unnamed UK government sources have confirmed it to the press.
The British government’s lawyer Neil Sheldon said the issue went beyond the arguments in the Apple case. Any move away from the policy posed a national security risk and ‘would provide material assistance to hostile actors’ who would be able to build a picture of which operators were subject to TCNs. He stated that it would provide material assistance to hostile actors who could build a picture of which operators are subject to TCNs.
Apple has launched a challenge at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) but has been unable to give public details due to legal restrictions. They have said that creating an entry point for one government could be exploited by hackers or hostile states, weakening security for all. The IPT will give a ruling on the NCND issue at a later date.
Following Britain’s demands, Apple withdrew its Advanced Data Protection feature for UK users in February last year, saying it would never build a backdoor. The company itself has no access to the encrypted data of those who use this feature on their devices, including iPhones and Mac computers. Ben Jaffey and other lawyers are waiting for the IPT’s ruling, which will determine the outcome of the case.
