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Apple grapple: Congress kills FBI's Cupertino crypto kybosh plan

Encryption would lead us all into a 'dark place', claim G-Men

The FBI director James Comey's bid to have Congress kibosh default encryption appears to have publicly failed after senators said the proposal would be rejected.

Republication and anti-surveillance crusader Zoe Lofgren told The Hill the G-Men's bid to have Congress wind back the crypto clocks would have "zero chance" of passing.

"I think the public would not support it, certainly industry would not support it, civil liberties groups would not support it," Lofgren said.

"I think [Comey is] a sincere guy, but there's just no way this is going to happen."

Lofgren's stance was backed up by fellow Republican Darrell Issa, another defender of online privacy, who said the FBI and spy agencies had prompted technology companies to more widely deploy cryptography.

"To FBI Director Comey and the Admin on criticisms of legitimate businesses using encryption: you reap what you sow," Issa said on Twitter.


Democrat Senator Ron Wyden said he doubted any crypto kill bill would gain support from more than "a handful" of lawmakers.

The K-O followed the easy passage of a bill banning the National Security Agency from using backdoors to spy on Americans.

Last week the FBI director said mobile encryption threatened to "lead all of us to a very dark place". ®

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