WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption made cops’ job more difficult

Misusing the latest feature of WhatsApp’s ‘end-to-end encryption’ to lock chats, photos and calls; the suspects of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), a banned terror outfit in India, have created a WhatsApp group in which more than 24 members were part of the group.

According to sources, after WhatsApp had introduced the feature to secure all the conversations and calls, all 13 suspects out of which three have been arrested, became active on WhatsApp. They made a group and started sharing jihadi videos and messages.

Sources in the Special Cell said: “We have not recovered any conversation/call recordings but they confessed that were active on WhatsApp and using the technology to communicate with each other. Earlier, they used another app and emails to communicate.”

Senior officials in the Special Cell and security agencies have confirmed that after the end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp, they failed to crackdown the encryption. “For the past one month the number of users of WhatsApp has skyrocketed. One of the reasons is the latest feature in which a user can protect the private messages from cyber criminals, hackers, ‘oppressive regimes,’ and even WhatsApp officials.”

The system works by using a ‘lock’ to secure messages between individuals or in a group chat. This lock is paired with a distinct ‘key,’ which only the sender and the recipients will have.

Each message in the conversation will have its own unique lock and key, the website explains and the exchanges will occur automatically. Users won’t have to turn on a particular setting to secure their messages, explains WhatsApp.

Pawan Duggal, Cyber Expert said: “It has become difficult to unencrypt the conversations on WhatsApp. It has now become a high-level thing that is very much time consuming.” However, some of the hackers claimed that they can still manage to access the encrypted conversation. The tall claims of the hackers were later rubbished by the security agencies.