Ex-NSA Chief Backs Apple’s Encryption Fight

The ongoing fight between the Justice Department and Apple over encryption seems to be generating new high-profile public stances by the minute.

Last week, Google CEO Sundar Pinchai — after some light Twitter prompting — noted his support of Apple in the encryption battle, while Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump publicly called for a boycott of Apple products.

And then, things got strange(r).

Retired General Michael Hayden — a man who has headed both the NSA and the CIA — told USA Today that while he trends “toward the government,” when it comes to the San Bernardino case in particular, he actually supports Apple’s position that there ought not be a backdoor to encrypted systems.

“In this specific case, I’m trending toward the government, but I’ve got to tell you, in general, I oppose the government’s effort, personified by FBI Director Jim Comey,” Hayden noted. “Jim would like a backdoor available to American law enforcement in all devices globally. And, frankly, I think, on balance, that actually harms American safety and security, even though it might make Jim’s job a bit easier in some specific circumstances.”

That remark comes in response to repeated public statements from Comey disparaging Apple’s incredibly strong encryption protocols.

Hayden also notes that he thought he might have liked access to such a backdoor in his security days, but backdoors come with a very high price, which is that they can let in all sorts of unsavory types.

“When you step back and look at the whole question of American security and safety writ large, we are a safer, more secure nation without backdoors,” he says. With them, “a lot of other people would take advantage of it.”

Hayden further noted that there was likely no easy or universally acceptable solution to this situation — no easy way to divide the baby — since Americans tend to value security and privacy rather highly and in a non-compromising way.

“There are no permanent answers to [balancing security and privacy]. We debate them continuously based on the totality of circumstances in which we find ourselves. The point I make to our countrymen: This is not a struggle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. This is a good people, trying to find the right balance.”

And while it might seem that Hayden has mellowed some in retirement, it seems worth noting that “gone soft” is probably not much of a descriptor for a man who stands by the limited use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique and extensive mass surveillance of phone records (though he thinks perhaps the NSA should have been less secretive about it.)