ISIS terrorists planned Paris attacks with WhatsApp and other encrypted apps

Officials have named WhatsApp and Telegram amongst the apps linked to the Islamic State terrorists

 

ISLAMIC STATE extremists plotted the terrorist attacks in Paris using WhatsApp and other encrypted apps, officials briefed on the investigation have revealed.

 

Religious extremists linked to the attacks in Paris used encrypted apps to hide details of their plan, officials familiar with the ongoing investigation revealed to CNN.

This is the first time investigators have confirmed encrypted messaging apps were used to plot the devastating terror attacks.

Officials have named WhatsApp and Telegram amongst the apps linked to the Islamic State terrorists.

Both apps use end-to-end encryption to keep users' conversations, images, video and audio messages private. Telegram has previously been linked with Islamic State activity.

On the night of Friday November 13th, a series of co-ordinated terrorist attacks across Paris killed 130 people.

 

Gunmen – each fitted with a suicide vest – and affiliated with the so-called Islamic State, also referred to as ISIS or Daesh, targeted six different locations in the French capital city.

Amongst the targets was the Stade de France, where president Francois Hollande was watching the national team play a friendly match against Germany.

Terrorists also attacked restaurants, cafes and the Bataclan theatre, where rock band Eagles of Death Metal were performing to a sell-out crowd.

Some 368 people were injured in the gun and bomb attacks.

Officials had previously confirmed they had found encrypted apps installed on the mobile phones recovered from the crime scenes, but would not confirm whether the apps had been used to plan the attacks.

 



13 people were killed, and another 368 were injured in the gun and bomb attacks

 

 



Gunmen – each fitted with a suicide vest – targeted six different locations in the French capital



However those close to the investigation have now confirmed the terrorists used the encrypted messengers to communicate for a period before the attacks.

What was said in those encrypted messages may never be known, the officials told CNN.

Earlier this year Prime Minister David Cameron spoke out about the danger of allowing smartphone apps that use end-to-end encryption.

“In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?” he asked. 

"My answer to that question is: 'No, we must not’.

"We have always been able, on the authority of the Home Secretary, to sign a warrant and intercept a phone call, a mobile phone call or other media communications.

“But the question we must ask ourselves is whether, as technology develops, we are content to leave a safe space – a new means of communication – for terrorists to communicate with each other.”

 



Terrorists attacked restaurants, cafes and the Bataclan theatre



 



Religious extremists used encrypted apps to hide details of their plans



 

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 campaign group Big Brother Watch.

Investigators are still hard at work trying to gather evidence of those involved in plotting the attacks.

A number of unencrypted communicated from one mobile phone used by the religious extremists were recovered, officials have confirmed.

However the attackers were conscious of surveillance and regularly changed the SIM cards in their phones to evade detection.

 

FBI Director James Comey this week told a terrorism conference at New York Police Department headquarters that "the use of encryption is at the centre of terrorist trade craft."

A number of high profile technology firms increased the level of encrypted used in their products following the revelations on mass surveillance leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The news comes hours after WhatsApp was banned across Brazil as a punishment after it failed to comply with a court order to release encrypted information relating to a serious organised crime.

Under proposals in Theresa May's Investigatory Powers Bill – announced earlier this year in Parliament – communications firms will be legally required to help spies hack into suspects' smartphones and computers.

Domestic providers will be obliged to assist intelligence agencies when they are given warrants to carry out equipment interference.

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