Call to open up messaging apps labelled ‘misguided’

HOME Secretary Amber Rudd’s call for technology companies to open up encrypted services to intelligence agencies have been labelled “misguided” by industry experts.

Encrypted messaging services including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are under pressure from the Government to allow intelligence services to monitor potential terrorists following reports that Westminster attacker Khalid Masood may have used WhatsApp moments before his attack.

Ms Rudd has called on messaging apps that use encryption to install socalled “back doors” in their systems so that, with a warrant, police and the intelligence services could monitor the otherwise secure communications of those linked to terrorism.

However, the plans have been criticised over their potential threat to mobile device security in general, with the tech industry calling the use of encryption a vital tool in ensuring cyber security of consumers, with the technology used to hide personal data, including financial information, from hackers and cyber criminals.

Sam Dumitriu, from think tank the Adam Smith Institute, said Ms Rudd’s call for access was “misguided”.

“It is mathematically impossible to build a back door for just the good guys,” he said. “It means building a back door to your private messages for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s favourite hacker Guccifer. It means opening up your private photos to perverts like the iCloud hacker.

“Khalid Masood wasn’t even on MI5’s 3000-strong list of suspected jihadis. Ending end-to-end encryption would not have stopped the Westminster attack, but it would mean a free-for-all for cyber criminals and Putin’s hackers.”