"It would be the height of irresponsibility to leave a digital backdoor wide open to our cyber adversaries," he said.

The FBI, he says, has begun "carefully privatizing some aspects of the investigation." It has also moved to mirror its cyber adversaries.

He declined to comment further, but in recent congressional testimony Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell named Russia and China as among the most important cyber adversaries for the United States.

We must ensure that, as cyber policy is developed, the ability of the private sector to coordinate in real time with the FBI is encouraged so that a multi-prong attack on our cyber adversaries can be as effective as possible.