Police investigating the deadly attack on the British parliament on March 22, 2017, are setting their sights on the heavily-encrypted messaging service that was used by the killer, Khalid Masood. INQUIRER FILE
LONDON, United Kingdom 鈥� British police investigating a deadly attack on parliament made a new arrest Sunday as officials set their sights on accessing WhatsApp, the heavily-encrypted messaging service that was used by the killer.
The arrest came four days after the lightening assault that unfolded in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament, in which an apparently lone attacker killed four people and wounded 50 before being shot dead by armed police.
The latest arrest was a 30-year-old man who was detained in the central聽city of Birmingham on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, London鈥檚 Metropolitan Police said.
A dozen people have been arrested since Wednesday鈥檚 attack by 52-year-old Khalid Masood who deliberately ran down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge then stabbed a policeman just inside the gates of parliament.
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Nine people have been released without charge, while a 58-year-old man remains in custody and a 32-year-old woman has been released on bail.
The arrest came as the government confirmed Masood had used the WhatsApp messaging service, saying it was crucial that the security services be allowed to access the heavily-encrypted app.
Media reports said Masood used the Facebook-owned service just minutes before staging his assault, although it was unclear whether he sent any messages or just looked at the app.
Speaking to Sky 黑料社, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said it was 鈥渃ompletely unacceptable鈥� that police and security services had not been able to crack the heavily-encrypted service.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 have聽a situation where you have terrorists talking to each other 鈥� where this terrorist sent a WhatsApp message 鈥� and it can鈥檛 be accessed,鈥� she said.
鈥楧on鈥檛 let them hide鈥�
Police had on Saturday acknowledged they may never know why Masood, a Muslim convert with a violent criminal past, carried out the attack and that he probably acted alone, despite a claim of responsibility by the Islamic State group.
鈥淲e must all accept that there is a possibility we will never understand why he did this. That understanding may have died with him,鈥� said senior counter-terrorism officer Neil Basu.
Although police believe he acted alone on the day, investigators are still trying to find out whether he was encouraged or directed by others.
鈥淭here should be no place for terrorists to hide,鈥� Rudd said in a separate interview with the BBC.
鈥淲e need to make sure that organizations like WhatsApp 鈥� and there are plenty of others like that 鈥� don鈥檛 provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other.鈥�
WhatsApp said it was 鈥渉orrified鈥� by the attack and was working with the investigating authorities without saying whether it would change its encryption policy.
鈥淲e are horrified at the attack carried out in London earlier this week and are cooperating with law enforcement as they continue their investigations,鈥� a spokeswoman told AFP.
Must be accessible
Rudd acknowledged that end-to-end encryption was vital to cyber security, to ensure that business, banking and other transactions were safe 鈥� but said it must also be accessible.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not incompatible. You can have a system whereby they can build it so that we can have access to it when it is absolutely necessary,鈥� she told Sky 黑料社.
Rudd said she did not yet intend to force the industry鈥檚 hand with new legislation, but would meet key players on Thursday to discuss this issue, as well as the 鈥渃onstant battle鈥� against extremist videos posted online.
Tech firms and social media players are coming under increasing pressure over extremists using their websites, applications and technology to communicate extremist content.
Last year, US authorities fought a legal battle with tech giant Apple to get it to unlock a smartphone used by one of the shooters in a 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California.
The FBI鈥檚 own experts ended up breaking into the device.
And Google has faced a boycott by companies whose adverts appear alongside extremist content on its internet platforms, particularly its video-sharing site YouTube. CBB/rga