Alexander Martin
Amid a growing scandal over the British government’s reported attempt to force Apple to provide the country’s authorities with access to encrypted iCloud accounts, a former intelligence chief has called for more transparency from spy agencies.
Speaking at the Munich Cyber Security Conference on Thursday, Sir Jeremy Fleming — who headed the cyber and signals intelligence agency GCHQ from 2017 to 2023 — said he felt “really strongly” the agency’s “license to operate” had to be based on public understanding and trust.
Fleming’s comments came in the wake of The Washington Post reporting that senior politicians on the Senate Intelligence Committee were calling for the U.S. to limit intelligence sharing with the United Kingdom if the British legal notice was not retracted.
The Washington Post described the notice — which has not been made public — as creating a “back door allowing [British authorities] to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud,” although the British government has historically disputed the “back door” description.
British legislation instead describes the legal power as one that would require Apple to maintain the capability to provide iCloud content in response to a legal warrant, as Apple could do before introducing end-to-end encryption for iCloud in December 2022.
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