British interior minister says IT companies should stop offering a “secret place for terrorists to communicate”

British interior minister Amber Rudd believes encryption implemented by messaging services is offering a dangerous opportunity for terrorists to communicate.

British interior minister Amber Rudd has a clear opinion on encryption implemented by many messaging services, it is no more acceptable.

On Sunday the minister Amber Rudd reaffirmed that technology firms must collaborate with law enforcement agencies in the fight against threats like the terrorism. The companies should stop offering a “secret place for terrorists to communicate” through encrypted messaging systems.

According to British media, the terrorist Khalid Masood sent an encrypted message just before the London attack.

Rudd was “calling time on terrorists using social media as their platform”, she also requested the cooperation of companies providing encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp,

“It is completely unacceptable, there should be no place for terrorists to hide. We need to make sure organizations like WhatsApp, and there are plenty of others like that, don’t provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other.” said Rudd.

“We need to make sure that our intelligence services have the ability to get into situations like encrypted WhatsApp.”

The London attack reignites the debate around the compromise between privacy and security, while Intelligence agencies warn of new possible terrorist attacks in Europe.

Rudd added that the British case was quite different respect the Apple’s San Bernardino shooter’s case.

“This is something completely different. We’re not saying open up, we don’t want to go into the Cloud, we don’t want to do all sorts of things like that,” she said.

“But we do want them to recognize that they have a responsibility to engage with government, to engage with law enforcement agencies when there is a terrorist situation.”

Rudd said that the British Government is asking IT companies to stop letting “their sites, their platforms, their publishing enterprises … being used by terrorists”.

The real question is, could lives have been saved in London attack if law enforcement has had a backdoor in the principal instant messaging services?

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – terrorism, encryption)

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