Week ahead: Obama reviews encryption bill

President Obama is slated to review a draft of a controversial bill that would force companies to provide “technical assistance” to government investigators seeking locked data.

The measure, a response to concerns that criminals are increasingly using encrypted devices to hide from authorities, would require firms to comply with court orders seeking access to locked data.

{mosads}Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the leaders of the Intelligence panel, are behind the measure, which law enforcement lobbied hard to get introduced.

But the measure will likely face vociferous opposition from the tech community and privacy advocates, who warn that it would undermine security and endanger online privacy.

A public draft is expected shortly after the White House takes what will be its second look at the bill. The administration previously provided edits back in March.

A nine-page discussion draft obtained by The Hill this week states that a company must provide “information or data” to the government “in an intelligible format” when served with a court order.

It’s not clear what would happen if a company did not comply with the requirements laid out in the bill.

In the Eastern District of New York, a legal case between Apple and the FBI exemplifies the kind of access Feinstein and Burr’s bill would mandate.

The FBI is appealing a recent decision by Magistrate Judge James Orenstein, which said that Apple could not be forced to comply with the agency’s request to turn over decrypted data from a convicted drug trafficker’s phone.

The agency revealed in Friday court filings that it will continue to pursue its appeal, briefly on hold while investigators test a recently obtained hacking method on the device. The tool, purchased for use on San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5C, did not work on the 5S in the New York case.

Apple will be filing its next brief in the case on Thursday.

In Europe, privacy regulators are set to issue an opinion on a pending data transfer deal between the U.S. and the European Union. The so-called Privacy Shield is intended to keep commercial data flowing legally across the Atlantic.

But leaks from the upcoming assessment suggested the working group of Europe’s 28 data privacy regulators is likely to reject the agreement in its current form.

On Capitol Hill, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on cybersecurity and protecting taxpayer information on Tuesday.

On Thursday, the House Transportation Committee will look at whether the U.S. is prepared to handle the aftermath of a cyberattack on the electrical grid.

MORE STORIES

Here’s the draft text of the Senate Intelligence Committee encryption bill obtained by The Hill: http://bit.ly/1oJK7Om

The debate over encryption technology has exposed a push-and-pull between federal agencies that support the technology and those that warn of its dangers: http://bit.ly/23pWtdX

The White House on Thursday denied reports that it will oppose the Feinstein-Burr encryption bill: http://bit.ly/23iHXYS

The tech and privacy community is pushing back against the bill: http://bit.ly/1RW3mMQ

Two lawmakers issued dueling statements on Wednesday alternately praising and bashing the popular messaging platform WhatsApp for turning on default encryption for its billion users: http://bit.ly/1UOet0l