UK wants backdoor access to WhatsApp in wake of London Attack

[Ben Tasker]

On Sun, Mar 26, 2017 at 4:15 PM, Razer <g2s at riseup.net> wrote:

>
> Rudd said attacks like Masood's would be easier to prevent if
> authorities could penetrate encrypted services after obtaining a warrant
> similar to the ones used to listen in on telephone calls or - in snail
> mail days - steam open letters and read their contents.
>
>
I saw this same claim in a story elsewhere.

Apparently he sent the WhatsApp message 2 minutes before the attack
started. Seems unlikely that a letter sent minutes
before would be found and steamed open in time to stop the attack (unless
the culprit is being actively followed).

Similarly, unless they're actively watching the guy's WhatsApp (and from
other reporting, it sounds like they were aware
of him, but he wasn't of much interest and wasn't under surveillance), it
still wouldn't have stopped the attack. 2 minutes
notice is better than nothing, but it's still not a lot of time to deploy
countermeasures, especially given he's unlikely to have
sent details of his plan in that message. It's more likely to be a
confirmation that he was about to proceed.


Access is obviously more helpful in the post-mortem, and when looking for
co-conspirators who might be planning another
attack, but it's still a case of fucking everyone over in order to spy on a
few (assuming it even stays that well constrained).





> British police investigating the attack say they still believe Masood, a
> 52-year-old Briton, acted alone and say they have no indications that
> further attacks are planned.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said it may never be possible to
> fully determine Masood's motives.
>
> "That understanding may have died with him," Basu said Saturday night as
> police appealed for people who knew Masood or saw him to contact
> investigators. "Even if he acted alone in the preparation, we need to
> establish with absolute clarity why he did these unspeakable acts, to
> bring reassurance to Londoners."
>
>

So there's a reasonable chance he didn't communicate anything useful to
anyone else, so there might not be much
they could have detected even with access. Again, fucking everyone over to
try and target a few, potentially with no
gain at the end of it.




-- 
Ben Tasker
https://www.bentasker.co.uk
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