The instant messaging apps on smartphone had strengthen the public service broadcasting. But the encrypted apps including whatsApp and Viber has spelt doom for intelligence agencies. Who are unable to ‘break through’ encrypted messages of terror operatives, they encrypt the texts or destroy them almost immediately. Nabbing these ‘hi-tech’ offenders has become a tough task.
Officials say , transmit data in encrypted form so that the ‘text’ can be deciphered only by the sender and receiver. These free of cost apps helps the people to communicate effectively but its very difficult for the cops to decode the culprits.
An expert said. “Local intelligence officials are struggling to find ways to penetrate through the walls of these messaging apps. Currently, even if the messages sent through these channels are successfully intercepted, it is impossible to break them down as they are in encrypted form – unlike in the case of e-mails and SMSes where the information is in plain text.”
Cyber forensic expert said Telangana police. “If decrypting data transmitted through popular apps is difficult, analyzing information sent through tailor-made apps is next to impossible. Decrypting can be carried out only through software support provided by the particular service provider. But that, unfortunately, isn’t happening.”
Cyber security expert-turned-entrepreneur Sainath Gupta explained the similar matter “WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption system only last year. Before that, the messages that the users exchanged could be easily accessed. Now, however, it works on an end-to-end device level making it difficult for outsiders to decrypt information without the company’s help.”
Rajat Shahi, founder of Hackmania said nothing is 100% safe and every ‘secure’ app available on the internet has some loopholes. Anybody with an extensive knowledge of how the system operates can find their way around firewalls and access any information.
Investigating teams and sources claim that. “Not only are they incompetent to decrypt these messages, even identifying the app through which a message is sent is a huge challenge for them. Only once the identification process is successfully completed can security agencies even attempt to hack the instrument and retrieve the information, right? Otherwise, how can they even hope to decode data.”