A senior US official chided the UK government on Tuesday for pressuring Apple to create a backdoor in its encryption although the US law enforcers would like a backdoor of their own.US national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard responded to an inquiry from two members of Congress, writing that she is concerned about the UKs request.I share your grave concern about the serious implications of the United Kingdom, or any foreign country, requiring Apple or any company to create a backdoor that would allow access to Americans personal encrypted data, Gabbard wrote in a letter, a copy of which was published by US Senator Ron Wyden. This would be a clear and egregious violation of Americans privacy and civil liberties and open up a serious vulnerability for cyber exploitation by adversarial actors.The end of end-to-end encryption?The issue of international rules about encryption and specifically methods to undermine or even break end-to-end-encrypted communications is a hot topic today.Sweden, for example, asked secure messaging service Signal to create clear-text copies of all secure messages, something that Signal publicly refused to do.Similar efforts are being explored within the European Union as well as various European member states including France.The incident that prompted Gabbards letter involved a UK attempt to pressure Apple to create a backdoor, something that Apple refused to do, causing UK regulators to temporarily back off.Gabbard said government attorneys are trying to figure out if the UK move violated an earlier agreement between the two governments by even seeking the Apple backdoor.My lawyers are working to provide a legal opinion on the implications of the reported UK demands against Apple on the bilateral Cloud Act agreement. Upon initial review of the US and UK bilateral CLOUD Act Agreement, the United Kingdom may not issue demands for data of U.S. citizens, nationals, or lawful permanent residents, nor is it authorized to demand the data of persons located inside the United States, Gabbard wrote in the letter. The same is true for the United States it may not use the CLOUD Act agreement to demand data of any person located in the United Kingdom.National security postureBut US law enforcement organizations would like their own backdoor to encrypted messaging, as a senior FBI official told an international conference last year.Michela Menting, senior director at ABI Research, said she saw Gabbards letter as US posturing: This is an unclassified letter so clearly the US wants to show that it is trying to faithfully adhere to bilateral accords.That mismatch between Gabbards protest and the FBIs wishlist comes down to who is making the request.Im sure the US is probably seeking the exact same thing from Apple as the UK is. It doesnt, however, like to be undercut by the UK in this regard, Menting said: Reading between the lines, if anyone is to have a backdoor into a US company, it should be a US national agency. Its a diplomatically worded tut tutting if you will, a little tap on the hand to say, hands off.