UK intelligence calls for an end to encrypted messaging after London terrorist attack

[Master Disaster]

A government official (speaking on behalf on intelligence agencies) has called for an end to encrypted messaging after it was revealed that the terrorist who attacked London this week was using WhatsApp minutes before the attack started

Quote

There must be "no place for terrorists to hide" and intelligence services must have access to encrypted messaging services, the home secretary has said.

 

Khalid Masood, who killed four people in Westminster this week, was reportedly on the messaging app WhatsApp two minutes before the attack.

 

Police are currently unable to know what was communicated.

 

Amber Rudd said she would be meeting technology firms this week to ask them to "work with us".

The Labour party leader has called for caution saying public rights must be balanced with government powers

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But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said there had to be a balance between the "right to know" and "the right to privacy".

The intelligence service are asking for the help of social media companies to help combat this problem

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Ms Rudd called on social media companies to develop "technology solutions".

 

She said: "Each attack confirms again the role that the internet is playing in serving as a conduit, inciting and inspiring violence, and spreading extremist ideology of all kinds...

 

"We need the help of social media companies, the Googles, the Twitters, the Facebooks of this world.

 

"And the smaller ones, too: platforms such as Telegram, Wordpress and Justpaste.it."

 

But chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper, told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday said it is "not enough" for the government to have more meetings with tech companies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39396578

 

There's zero evidence to suggest anything he said on WhatsApp had anything to do with the attack and as they admitted, they have no idea what he said or to who yet they're already using it to try and remove our privacy from us.

 

It was a bad thing he did but that's no reason for them to get powers to snoop on everyone.

[kelvinhall05]

So now not only are US ISPs stalking us, so is the UK government!

 

Oh, and first

[VVoltor]

Good old intelligent agencies, you can always rely on them to use any tragedy in their advantage and screw us all with their massive privacy invasion dildo.

[0ld_Chicken]

-A preemptive reminder to keep this a TECH based discussion and not a political debate!- 

[Master Disaster]

3 minutes ago, VVoltor said:

Good old intelligent agencies, you can always rely on them to use any tragedy in their advantage and screw us all with their massive privacy invasion dildo.

This is giant tinfoil hat stuff but there's a small part of me that wonders if they don't let one slip through every now and again to reinforce their propaganda message even stronger. 

 

"We have to encroach on everyone's liberties cause terrorists"

 

 

[matrix07012]

I think I have a better solution, but it might hurt some feelings. We can't allow that.

[Guest]

You take away their current source of secure/private communication, they find another. Hell, they'll go back to pissing letters if they have to. 

 

Just another excuse for them to try and get their claws into absolutely every bit of data out there. Either that or they're this retarded. 

6 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

So now not only are US ISPs stalking us, so is the UK government!

 

Oh, and first

They have been for years

[Mr.Meerkat]

But how are my friends and I gonna share dank memes without the MI6 all up our arses?  

[Guest]

1 minute ago, matrix07012 said:

I think I have a better solution, but it might hurt some feelings. We can't allow that.

We can, here: It's probably a retarded 'solution'.

[matrix07012]

Just now, AUniqueName said:

We can, here: It's probably a retarded 'solution'.

But it's still better than endangering your citizens.

[Master Disaster]

2 minutes ago, AUniqueName said:

You take away their current source of secure/private communication, they find another. Hell, they'll go back to pissing letters if they have to. 

 

Just another excuse for them to try and get their claws into absolutely every bit of data out there. Either that or they're this retarded. 

They have been for years

Exactly, if they removed encryption from everything tomorrow it wouldn't take them long to find an alternative meanwhile Joe public loses another protection layer against fraudsters and thiefs.

[Master Disaster]

11 minutes ago, matrix07012 said:

But it's still better than endangering your citizens.

I think the problem is the politicians just don't understand technology and I think they don't really want to, or indeed even really care about it either. When you have old and out of touch people governing some of the stuff they come up with is just laughable.

 

Let's say they abolish encrypted messaging tomorrow, what exactly would they expect their own spies to "phone home" with? I'm sure they use encryption on a daily basis much more than the public do and I'm also sure they'd be expecting to continue using it to protect themselves while mandating that the general public cannot use it.

 

My phone automatically encrypts itself now, I didn't ask it to do it (though I did give it permission) and I'm sure many other peoples phones also do it too. Would they be expecting us to remove that encryption? Expecting us to hand over passwords and keys?

[Citadelen]

This is such a delicate issue, every option seems to have its advantages and disadvantages. Personally, in the UK, I don't think we need this, we're simply not as at risk as continental countries. I support government back doors in countries such as France, Belgium and Germany, but as of current I don't see the need here, given how loose of an influence over British Muslims. Should the IRA become a threat again, then I would support it here also, they're a different bag all together, I mean they're launched bloody mortar attacks on Downing Street.

[matrix07012]

Just now, Citadelen said:

I support government back doors in countries such as France, Belgium and Germany, but as of current I don't see the need, given how loose of an influence over British Muslims. Should the IRA become a threat again, then I would support it here also, they're a different bag all together, I mean they're launched bloody mortar attacks on Downing Street.

This "but" never ends well. "I like privacy, but..." "I'm pro free speech, but..."

[Monkey Dust]

You can't un-invent the wheel, encryption exists and terrorist groups could create their own encrypted services to use. Banning encrypted messaging services would be but a minor inconvenience to them.

[Citadelen]

Just now, matrix07012 said:

This "but" never ends well. "I like privacy, but..." "I'm pro free speech, but..."

Not only is that argument not relevant to what I said, but it was based on me forgetting to put "in", after the but.

[vorticalbox]

even if all communication was unencrypted there is literally nothing stopping people encrypting the text using a program then sending it. 

[Trik'Stari]

16 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I think the problem is the politicians just don't understand technology and I think they don't really want to, or indeed even really care about it either. When you have old and out of touch people governing some of the stuff they come up with is just laughable.

 

Let's say they abolish encrypted messaging tomorrow, what exactly would they expect their own spies to "phone home" with? I'm sure they use encryption on a daily basis much more than the public do and I'm also sure they'd be expecting to continue using it to protect themselves while mandating that the general public cannot use it.

 

My phone automatically encrypts itself now, I didn't ask it to do it (though I did give it permission) and I'm sure many other peoples phones also do it too. Would they be expecting us to remove that encryption? Expecting us to hand over passwords and keys?

In the same vein, some people don't understand how someone proclaiming to speak for a supreme being can do a lot of damage.

 

Especially to populations of people that aren't in their homelands (although this particular guy was in his homeland), who haven't been required to integrate or even encourage to do so. I'm speaking more about the lesser crimes being committed by the same group now. You know, the ones your government and large news agencies won't talk about for fear of it somehow being racist to talk about an ongoing trend that is actually happening. (despite this having nothing to do with race at all, and more to do with religion)

 

We really need for the baby boomer generation, as well as the hippy generation that came right after them, to retire.

[Kierlan]

It really is like fucking clockwork, tragedy strikes and then all the intel communities leap upon it and call for the end of "whatever thing is making our job challenging this week". 

 

I'm sure in the weeks and months to come people will find out that probably only used the app to say goodbye to someone or something utterly mundane just like every other time they've tried to use a tragedy as an excuse. 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

even if all communication was unencrypted there is literally nothing stopping people encrypting the text using a program then sending it. 

I think they're proposing that services like Facebook, WhatsApp, Google services, Twitter etc. provide them with backdoors. Without actually saying that of course.

[Citadelen]

2 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

-snip-

Completely agree with you. I'm getting sick of being called a racist and a bigot for demanding refugees and migrants integrate into the societies they move too.

[Trik'Stari]

3 minutes ago, Citadelen said:

Completely agree with you. I'm getting sick of being called a racist and a bigot for demanding refugees and migrants integrate into the societies they move too.

People don't realize that requiring them to learn english is about more than just whether or not they can understand your fast food order. It's about helping them not feel like a complete alien in a new society.

 

They also don't seem to realize the point in not having mass immigration. Mass immigration ends up with all of the new people moving to the same area, and "ghetto-izing" themselves. They create their own little bubble and then bad things can happen.

 

If you want to welcome them into our societies, you actually have to do that. Not just let them move here. You have to take steps to ensure that they actually become apart of society.

[Citadelen]

2 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

-snip-

Of course as soon as someone suggests that they get screamed down by the regressive left. If only they saw the damage they were doing to not only the people themselves, but to the fabric of healthy society.

[Kierlan]

4 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

People don't realize that requiring them to learn english is about more than just whether or not they can understand your fast food order. It's about helping them not feel like a complete alien in a new society.

 

They also don't seem to realize the point in not having mass immigration. Mass immigration ends up with all of the new people moving to the same area, and "ghetto-izing" themselves. They create their own little bubble and then bad things can happen.

 

If you want to welcome them into our societies, you actually have to do that. Not just let them move here. You have to take steps to ensure that they actually become apart of society.

You only need to look at France where they North Africans formed their own little communities while the French just ignored them. Now every year its a tradition for cars to be set on fire into the double or even triple digit numbers on bad years. It's not racist to look at a situation and realize that there is a problem that needs addressing, its only racist if your only solution is "welp, time to fire up the ovens". 

[vorticalbox]

2 minutes ago, AUniqueName said:

I think they're proposing that services like Facebook, WhatsApp, Google services, Twitter etc. provide them with backdoors. Without actually saying that of course.

a back door would be useless.

 

Ee2hVuKl6ooodGTLNXqJhe/FGjrx5UttVMBmp8sJmb4=

 

that says "hello from vorticalbox" so regardless of whether the message was send encrypted or not is irrelevant the contents would be encrypted before touching any application with a back door.