UK fears web encryption is hiding terror suspects

Report claims intelligence agencies locked out of communications

Britain’s security services are “increasingly concerned” that they could be locked out from the communications of potentially dangerous suspects because of sophisticated encryption techniques, a major report has disclosed.

Police and intelligence agencies face a “significant challenge” when they are looking to monitor individuals who “pose a risk to collective security”, a year-long review of surveillance practices found.

It said communications service providers (CSPs) have begun to introduce sophisticated data encryption techniques more extensively – a trend said to have been “accelerated” in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations.

Security services are “increasingly concerned that many of the subjects of interest – including those in the highestpriority investigations – are able to use means of communication to which they no longer have access”, the report said.

It added: “It is this lack of detailed intelligence available on a small number of high-priority targets that is the prime concern.”

The report was commissioned from security thinktank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) by then deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

It came in the wake of disclosures by Snowden, a former US National Security Agency ( NSA) employee, which prompted intense scrutiny of techniques used by US and British intelligence.

It was prepared by a group of experts including Sir David Omand, a former director of GCHQ, ex-head of MI6 Sir John Scarlett and former director general of MI5 Jonathan Evans.

The report concluded that, despite claims that followed the Snowden revelations, there is no evidence that “the British government knowingly acts illegally in intercepting private communications” or that “the ability to collect data in bulk is used by the government to provide it with a perpetual window into the private lives of British citizens”.