WhatsApp BAN: MI5 boss kickstarts renewed threat to encrypted messages in UK

Secure, end-to-end encryption should not be allowed online, the MI5 Director General has claimed

MI5 BELIEVES encrypted messaging services are a THREAT to national security – renewing fears WhatsApp could be BANNED across Great Britain.

 

MI5 boss Andrew Parker has requested new powers to allow his agency to monitor online communications, a move which could lead to the banning of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and iMessage.

Mr Parker claims online firms like Facebook and Twitter have a "responsibility" to share information about their users with the UK government.

WhatsApp, iMessage, SnapChat and many other popular online messaging services use end-to-end encryption to keep your texts and multimedia safe from prying eyes.

Prime Minister Cameron had previously hoped to outlaw this high level of privacy, in an effort to help law enforcement services track and monitor potential terrorist threats.

 

Theresa May has been granted permission to appeal the EU decision on encryption

But this secure level of encryption prevents the government from being able to monitor messages from people of interest, sent using these online services.

Arguing against strong encryption, Mr Parker said that the current terrorist threat to the UK was at its highest level in three decades.

British police currently make a request to access personal metadata – texts, emails, phone calls and internet searches – once every two minutes in the UK, according to data from campign group Big Brother Watch.

They are using secure apps and internet communication to try to broadcast their message and incite and direct terrorism

Andrew Parker

The Director-General of the British Security Services said strong encryption was "creating a situation where law enforcement agencies and security agencies can no longer obtain under proper legal warrant the contents of communications between people they have reason to believe are terrorists."

"They are using secure apps and internet communication to try to broadcast their message and incite and direct terrorism amongst people who live here who are prepared to listen to their message," he said, during an interview on BBC Radio 4.

 

 

 

WhatsApp, like many other popular messaging apps, boasts end-to-end encryption for your texts

Mr Parker said it was "in nobody's interests that terrorists should be able to plot and communicate out of the reach of any authorities with proper legal power."
 

The comment mirrors a remark made by Prime Minister David Cameron back in January, who said: "In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which, even in extremis, with a signed warrant from the home secretary personally, that we cannot read?

"Are we going to allow a means of communication where it simply isn't possible to do that? And my answer to that question is no we must not. 

"The first duty of any government is to keep our people and our country safe."

MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Boris Johnson has previously spelled out the Conservative government's anti-encryption goals. 

"I'm not interested in this civil liberties stuff. If they're a threat, I want their emails and calls listened to," he said.

 

Andrew Parker, Director General of the Security Service

Both UK and US governments have previously requested that technology firms create a backdoor – a secret key to bypass encryption – to allow agencies like MI5 and the NSA to monitor select conversions.

But security experts and computer scientists have repeatedly pointed out that criminals could use the same backdoor to access everyone's secure messages.

A number of technology companies, including Apple, have spoken out against the measures and refused to remove end-to-end encryption from their messaging services.

CEO Tim Cook cautioned that Apple has "never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services ... and we never will."

 

Mr Parker told Radio 4 listeners: "Because of that threat we face and the way the terrorists operate and the way we all live our lives today, it is necessary that if we are to find and stop the people who mean us harm, MI5 and others need to be able to navigate the internet to find terrorist communication.

“We need to be able to use data sets so we can join the dots, to be able to find and stop the terrorists who mean us harm before they are able to bring the plots to fruition. 

"We have been pretty successful at that over recent years, but it is becoming more difficult to do it as technology changes faster and faster."

Previous government plans to introduce anti-encryption legislation were deemed "inconsistent with EU law" – most notably Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights, which concerns an individual's right to privacy.