Quote:A European police chief says the sophisticated online communications are the biggest problem for security agencies tackling terrorism.
Hidden areas of the internet and encrypted communications make it harder to monitor terror suspects, warns Europol's Rob Wainwright.
Tech firms should consider the impact sophisticated encryption software has on law enforcement, he said.
A spokesman for TechUK, the UK's technology trade association, said: "With the right resources and cooperation between the security agencies and technology companies, alongside a clear legal framework for that cooperation, we can ensure both national security and economic security are upheld."
Mr Wainwright said that in most current investigations the use of encrypted communications was found to be central to the way terrorists operated.
"It's become perhaps the biggest problem for the police and the security service authorities in dealing with the threats from terrorism," he explained.
"It's changed the very nature of counter-terrorist work from one that has been traditionally reliant on having good monitoring capability of communications to one that essentially doesn't provide that anymore."
Mr Wainwright, whose organisation supports police forces in Europe, said terrorists were exploiting the "dark net", where users can go online anonymously, away from the gaze of police and security services.
But he is also concerned at moves by companies such as Apple to allow customers to encrypt data on their smartphones.
And the development of heavily encrypted instant messaging apps is another cause for concern, he said.
This meant people could send text and voice messages which police found very difficult or impossible to access, he said.
"We are disappointed by the position taken by these tech firms and it only adds to our problems in getting to the communications of the most dangerous people that are abusing the internet.
"[Tech firms] are doing it, I suppose, because of a commercial imperative driven by what they perceive to be consumer demand for greater privacy of their communications."

(03-30-2015, 07:51 PM)Six Wrote: "What they perceive to be consumer demand"?
Um. Excuse me? Who the fuck doesn't want better privacy, given how much its abused?
Fuckwit thinks he's clever and knows what citizens think.
Knows fuck all, I'm saying.