"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver last night took aim at encryption.
"You may not think about encryption much, but it is pretty fundamental to all our lives," Oliver explained. "Encryption can protect the things most important to us -- our financial information, health records, dick pics, trade secrets, classified government records, dick pics, our physical location, the physical location of our dicks, credit card information, dick pics, and pictures of our dicks."
"While it can keep us safe ... encryption also has a downside. It's become so ubiquitous that it's making it impossible for law enforcement to gain certain information," he continued, citing the recent very public dispute between Apple CEO Tim Cook and the U.S. Justice Department regarding a "backdoor" solution to one of the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone's encryption function.
Cook called such a workaround "the software equivalent of cancer."
"To be clear, Apple hasn't been entirely uncooperative," Oliver said. "But they are refusing to create the 'cancerous' program the FBI wants, not because it can't be done -- they say it would take six to ten engineers up to four weeks to do it. Or, you know, a standard Genius Bar appointment."
Watch the full segment below:
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