'Five Eyes' alliance calls for backdoor access to WhatsApp and other encrypted communications

GCHQ has suggested that tech firms' communication services should be able to surreptitiously add intelligence agents to conversations or group chats

' Five Eyes ' member countries have called for technology firms to help intelligence agencies by providing them with special, backdoor access to WhatsApp and other encrypted communications.

The group has also warned that failing to do so would put lives of thousands of people at risk.

"The Five Eyes are united that tech firms should not develop their systems and services, including end-to-end encryption, in ways that empower criminals or put vulnerable people at risk," British home secretary, Priti Patel, said at the conclusion of the two-day meeting of Five Eyes member countries in London.

"We heard today about the devastating and lifelong impact of child sexual exploitation and abuse and agreed firm commitments to collaborate to get ahead of the threat," she added, according to Reuters.

The meeting aimed to coordinate efforts among ' Five Eyes ' member countries to fight terrorism, cross-border crimes, child abuse, and other issues.

The Five Eyes association, which includes the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, evolved from a secret alliance between the American and British code breakers during the Second World War. The members of the group now have agreements to share with each other the intelligence inputs as well as the techniques to gather that information.

Western governments have repeatedly said in past years that data encryption by tech firms makes it difficult to investigate and prosecute individuals involved in criminal activities, including terrorism and child sex abuse.

The UK ' s Government Communications Headquarters has suggested that tech firms should develop technology to quietly add an intelligence agent to conversations or group chats.

The London Police said they could not see or decrypt WhatsApp messages that were sent by an attacker involved in the London Bridge attacks because his acquaintance refused to hand over his mobile phone to police.

Despite those arguments, tech firms have refused to insert backdoors in their applications, warning that inserting such "backdoors" would weaken security and make them prone to attacks from foreign governments or cybercriminals.

Messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram and other services now use end-to-end encryption technology which means that a message can only be decoded by the sender or the recipient. Encryption/decryption of messages is done on the phone itself, rather than by the service provider.

WhatsApp is also working to improve its security after it was discovered that an Israeli spyware firm exploited a bug on the platform earlier this year to covertly take control of an individual ' s phone.

In 2015, Michael Chertoff, former head of US Homeland Security, warned that building backdoors into encrypted applications would be 'a mistake'. Chertoff described the idea of preventing communication among criminals as 'a pipe dream', saying backdoors would just make ordinary users less secure.

In 2016, Apple CEO Tim Cook vowed to fight US government over iPhone security backdoor order. Cook wrote an open letter to explain Apple's opposition to order that was made to enable US law enforcement agencies to access the data on the device.