While the FBI had already found a way to access one of the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone without Apple's help, both parties are still set to clash again over encryption. A congressional committee member has announced that the tech giant and the security agency will return to Congress next week to argue about the same issue.
According to Yahoo, Apple Inc and Federal Bureau of Investigation will return to Congress next week to testify before lawmakers regarding their heated exchange on an encryption case. The two parties are notably having a disagreement over law enforcement access to encrypted devices.
Apple's general counsel, Bruce Sewell, and executive assistant director for science and technology at the FBI, Amy Hess, will testify on their separate groups' behalf before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday. There are also expected other law enforcement officials and technology experts.
Reuters wrote that FBI director James Comey already appeared last month before a separate congressional committee wherein he defended the pursuit of the agency to the court order sent to Apple in getting their assistance for unlocking an iPhone. However, the FBI has since abandoned that case after a third party helped the government in hacking the device. Nonetheless, the US Justice Department continued their efforts on forcing Apple to cooperate with them as there is another New York drug case.
The Guardian reported that earlier this week, two senators already made a draft legislation that would empower courts in ordering technology companies to hand over data 'in an intelligible format.' They added that the data will be given even though the owner made it inaccessible to anyone using his encryption.
Security researchers and civil liberties advocates said the bill will ban using strong encryption, which is a need nowadays to ensure one's security and prevent hackers from getting information. The Apple Inc. and FBI will meet on April 19 before Thomas Galati, Charles Cohen and Matthew Blaze.
