London terrorist used WhatsApp encryption that police can't read

BBC:
There must be "no place for terrorists to hide" and intelligence services must have access to encrypted messaging services, the home secretary has said.

Khalid Masood killed four people in Westminster this week. It is understood his phone had connected to messaging app WhatsApp two minutes earlier.

Amber Rudd said she would be meeting technology firms this week.

A WhatsApp spokeswoman said the company was "horrified at the attack" and was co-operating with the investigation.

Meanwhile, a 12th arrest has been made by officers investigating the attack. The 30-year-man was detained in Birmingham on Sunday on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.
...

All messages sent on WhatsApp have end-to-end encryption, meaning they are unreadable if intercepted by anyone, including law enforcement and WhatsApp itself.

So while Masood's phone is believed to have connected with the app, police may not know what, if anything, was communicated.
...
I suspect that this is another example of the "Snowden effect."  Ever since he in effect warned terrorist that the NSA was tracking their communications the number of terrorist attacks has increased and fewer have been stopped beforehand.  The encryption software is at the heart of this new ability.

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