Terrorists’ friend (cont). WhatsApp won’t reveal killer’s final message
INTERNET giants were in the dock again last night for a ‘completely unacceptable’ failure to hand over the final words of the Westminster terrorist.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd accused messaging service WhatsApp of giving terrorists ‘ a place to hide’ after it emerged that the security services had been unable to access Khalid Masood’s last messages.
The Muslim convert was using the Facebook- owned app on his smartphone just three minutes before he embarked on Wednesday’s slaughter. But because it uses so-called ‘end-to-end’ encryption, the content of messages can be deciphered by only the sender and recipient. Senior investiga- tors believe father-of-four Masood, who had a history of violence, acted alone when he brought bloodshed to Britain’s streets in the car and knife atrocity.
But they are still desperate to access his last messages, which may have included pictures and video, because they could reveal the 52-yearold’s contacts.
The latest twist comes just days after the Mail revealed that vile terror handbooks encouraging jihadis to mount a car attack before going on a stabbing rampage were available online on Google and Twitter – despite widespread warnings that extremists used them.
Yesterday, Miss Rudd delivered a scathing attack on WhatsApp for using encryption so sophisticated it allowed terrorists to plot under the radar of security services. The site, which has more than 1billion users, keeps texts and multi-media safe from prying eyes. But it makes it impossible for the intelligence services to access potentially extremist content.
Miss Rudd: ‘We can’t have a situation where terrorists can talk to each other, where this terrorist sent a WhatsApp message and it can’t be accessed. It is completely unacceptable – there should be no place for terrorists to hide. We need to make sure that organisations like Whats- App, and there are plenty of others like that, don’t provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other.
‘We need to make sure that our intelligence services have the ability to get into situations like encrypted WhatsApp.’
Miss Rudd demanded companies build ‘ back doors’ that allowed the security services to access messages if they had a judge-approved warrant from a Home Secretary.
Rob Wainwright, the British director of EU policing agency Europol, told the BBC: ‘There is no doubt that encrypted communications are becoming a more and more prominent feature in the way that terrorists communicate – a real challenge for investigators. (There) is a stark inconsistency between the ability of the police to lawfully intercept telephone calls but not when those messages are exchanged by a social media messaging board.’
Google, Twitter and Facebook, as well as websites such as Telegram and Wordpress, have been summoned to a meeting at the Home Office on Thursday. Miss Rudd will tell them that she is ‘calling time’ on terrorists using their platforms.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also called on the companies to develop new technology to detect and remove jihadist and other extreme material. He said: ‘They need to stop just making money out of prurient violent material. They are not acting when they are tipped off.
‘Evil flourishes when good men do nothing – and that’s what’s happening here.’
WhatsApp said: ‘ We are horrified at the attack carried out in London and are co- operating with law enforcement.’
GOOGLE, THE TERRORISTS’ FRIEND... Friday’s Mail