WHATSAPP MESSAGING SERVICE GIVES ‘TERRORISTS A PLACE TO HIDE,’ U.K. MINISTER SAYS AFTER POLICE DISCOVER THAT THE WESTMINSTER ATTACKER HAD SENT A MESSAGE JUST PRIOR TO HIS RAMPAGE.
U.K. minister calls for end to encryption
Security services must be allowed to crack into encrypted messaging services or terrorists will enjoy a digital “place to hide,” Britain’s top security official said Sunday, re-igniting a fiery debate over privacy on the Internet.
Amber Rudd, the U.K.’s home secretary, made the comments after police discovered that London’s Westminster attacker had sent a text via WhatsApp just before his rampage.
Rudd said investigators have been unable to access the message sent on the hugely popular service. WhatsApp is equipped with end- to- end encryption, meaning the company — now owned by Facebook — has no way to intercept its users’ communications, even if police present them with a warrant.
The technology industry has zealously defended such features as crucial to protecting online privacy, while many governments have decried what they call a gift to violent extremists.
“It is completely unacceptable, there should be no place for terrorists to hide,” Rudd told the BBC. “We need to make sure that organizations like WhatsApp — and there are plenty of others like that — don’t provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other.”
She called for a “back door” into the networks, allowing security services with proper authorization to access messages, while leaving encryption in place for the rest of the system.
But a Canadian expert on terrorists and their use of the Internet questioned Sunday whether giving governments such powers would be wise, noting that encryption “saves lives” of many people living under repressive regimes.
Compromising WhatsApp’s secrecy would likely just drive people to other services, said Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, with the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at Scotland’s St. Andrews University. He noted that al Qaeda actually had its own encryption system — called Mujahedin Secrets — as long ago as 2007.
“I’m not necessarily convinced by the argument that this is the holy key for terrorist prevention,” he said in an interview. “This is the typical knee-jerk, opportunistic, populist reaction from a government. It will serve very little, other than to infringe the privacy of individuals.”
Khalid Masood killed three people as he plowed into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge, then stabbed to death a police officer outside the British Parliament. Moments later, Masood was shot dead by other police.