GCHQ plans to eavesdrop on encrypted chats condemned

An open letter signed by more than 50 companies, civil society organisations and security experts has argued against proposals for security officials to eavesdrop on encrypted chats.

The GCHQ plans have been dubbed a ‘serious threat’ to digital security and human rights, with 50 companies, civil society organisations and security experts – including Apple, WhatsApp, Liberty and Privacy International – urging GCHQ to abandon its ‘ghost protocol’.

In November 2018, Ian Levy, the technical director of the UK’s national cyber security centre, and Crispin Robinson, head of cryptanalysis at GCHQ, suggested a technique that would avoid breaking encryption, instead requiring encrypted messaging services to ‘cc’ encrypted messages to a third recipient, at the same time as sending it directly.

In 2017, WhatsApp found itself scrutinised with then Home Secretary Amber Rudd calling for the intelligence services to access relevant information.  The issue arrived following the discovery that Khalid Masood used WhatsApp minutes before carrying out his killings on Westminster Bridge.

Two years later, it was widely reported that the London Bridge attackers’ use of WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging service, may have prevented the authorities from identifying the plot. Police investigating the attack were not able to gain access to ringleader Khuram Butt’s WhatsApp messages, which were automatically encrypted as soon as they were sent.