WASHINGTON 鈥� It鈥檚 easy to imagine what side Michael Hayden, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, would take in the dispute between Apple and the FBI over hacking into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. But it鈥檚 not that simple.
The FBI has demanded that Apple write code to get around the automatic security feature on an iPhone by which it locks up permanently after 10 unsuccessful attempts to guess the 4-digit access code. It鈥檚 been popularly portrayed as a conflict between privacy and security, but Hayden says that鈥檚 a false choice.
In the particular case in question, Hayden tells 海角精品黑料 that聽the fact that the FBI is going through the courts makes a difference. He says the burden of proof is on Apple to prove 鈥渨hy giving in on this specific activity for one phone, under a court order, inevitably leads to this permanent, universal ability to get into their product.鈥�
But any move toward that permanent access, Hayden says, is a bad idea, and not just from a privacy standpoint.聽Such matters are often considered a conflict between privacy and security, but Hayden, the author of the new book “Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror,” says that’s a false choice.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a powerful privacy argument off to the side,鈥� Hayden, told 海角精品黑料 recently, 鈥渂ut just in the security lane, right now I鈥檓 believing that American is better served 鈥� for its security 鈥� with unbreakable, end-to-end encryption. …
“And the government鈥檚 current request to have some kind of permanent, standing, baked-in access that they can call on 鈥� I actually think that that threatens that security.”
Once a way into a system is created, Hayden says, there鈥檚 no way to ensure that it鈥檚 only going to be used by the proper authorities: 鈥淲hen somebody puts a door into a system, he鈥檚 just upped my chances that someone can break in.鈥�
WHILE FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY聽is arguing that what he鈥檚 asking Apple to do is a one-off request for an important case, Hayden says, 鈥測ou鈥檝e got the U.S. attorney in Manhattan saying, 鈥楢nd as soon as you guys are done in California, I got a room full of these things here you should work on.鈥欌��
Hayden recalls that James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, recently told Congress that the No. 1 threat to the nation is not flesh-and-blood terrorism but cybersecurity.
鈥淪o in one sense, what you鈥檝e got here is a proposal to unarguably weaken, across the board, our cyber defenses, in order to deal with this other particular threat. Like I said, it鈥檚 all trade-offs.鈥�
And while there are no easy choices, he added, 鈥淚 think unbreakable encryption, on balance, keeps more Americans more safe more of the time.鈥�
In the end, he says, there are no easy choices.
海角精品黑料鈥檚 Mike Moss remarked to Hayden that it doesn鈥檛 seem like it should be beyond the capabilities of the FBI to hack into an iPhone. But Hayden says you鈥檇 be surprised: 鈥淲e are struggling to keep pace with the march of technology outside of our fence line.
鈥淪o it is not at all surprising that big companies like Apple and Google and Microsoft are making technological advances that are incredibly difficult for the government to keep up with, even if they wanted to.鈥�
HAYDEN WENT ON聽to discuss the effort to combat the Islamic State 鈥� efforts he called 鈥渦nder-resourced and over-regulated. Not enough [is] committed, and that which is committed has been pulled back for a variety of reasons.鈥�
He added, 鈥淔rankly, I think we need to freely admit that a lot of this is about Islam.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not about all of Islam, and it鈥檚 certainly not about all Muslims. But there is a great civil war going on in one of the world鈥檚 great monotheisms, and our denying that fact doesn鈥檛 help us think through an appropriate course of action.鈥�
Later, he clarified by saying that his opinion isn鈥檛 a call for a religious-based war, but a recognition of the limits of what Westerners can do in the situation. While 鈥渒inetic military鈥� operations can be successful in what he calls 鈥渢he close fight,鈥� when it comes to 鈥渢he deep fight鈥� of ideology, 鈥渙ur tools are limited.鈥�
Unlike the Cold War conflict against communism, a Western philosophy 鈥渨ritten by a German in a library in London,鈥� in the long-term struggle within Islam, Hayden says, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have an authoritative voice.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 not trying to be politically correct,鈥� he added; 鈥淚鈥檓 trying to be genuinely respectful. We need to have a deeper appreciation for not the conflict but the story.鈥�
But in the end, he said on 海角精品黑料, 鈥淚 get it; this is hard. I鈥檓 glad I鈥檓 not in the Situation Room anymore.鈥�
