Former CIA agent and Republican Rep. Will Hurd is backing Apple in its dispute over an FBI court order to unlock an iPhone used by California terrorist Syed Farook – saying protection of "civil liberties" should be paramount.
In a
CNBC interview Friday, the Texas lawmaker, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Information Technology, warns the government is also risking damage to its relationship with the tech sector by forcing Apple’s compliance.
"This is a much larger debate than just unlocking one phone," Hurd tells CNBS. "This is about how do we protect or civil liberties and chase bad guys at the same time. I think you protect your civil liberties."
The FBI is asking Apple to create software to disable a failsafe that triggers the phone to wipe its own memory after 10 failed attempts to enter the pass code – allowing investigators to hack into Farook's iPhone.
Apple argues that kind of software is a "backdoor" that hackers could use to crack into other iPhones, and Hurd agrees.
"If you build a backdoor for the good guys, the bad guys [could] have access to it," Hurd tells CNBC.
“An important partner in this fight is the private sector,” Hurd adds. "A lot of these companies help support those efforts of the intelligence community and law enforcement community."
According to
The Hill, Hurd will serve as a key voice as Congress is increasingly pressured to step in and pass legislation to settle this dispute.
Early next week, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner will introduce compromise legislation, The Hill reports.
The bill would establish a commission to study how police might be able to access encrypted data without endangering privacy, The Hill reports.
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