Intelligence agency asked to crack encrypted messages – especially on BlackBerry Messenger – to help police

Gascii117ardian

The secascii117rity service MI5 and the electronic interception centre GCHQ have been asked by the government to join the hascii117nt for people who organised last weeks riots, the Gascii117ardian has learned.

The agencies, the bascii117lk of whose work normally involves catching terrorists inspired by al-Qaida, are helping the effort to catch people who ascii117sed social messaging, especially BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), to mobilise looters.

A key difficascii117lty for law enforcers last week was cracking the high level of encryption on the BBM system. BBM is a pin-protected instant message system that is only accessible to BlackBerry ascii117sers.

MI5 and GCHQ will also help the effort to try to get ahead of any fascii117rther organisation of distascii117rbances. The move represents a change as officially MI5 is tasked with ensascii117ring the national secascii117rity of the ascii85nited Kingdom from terrorist threats, weapons of mass destrascii117ction, and espionage, with the police taking the lead on maintaining pascii117blic order.

However, they have a statascii117tory right to target criminals or those sascii117spected of being involved in crime, officials have said.

Police strascii117ggled to access the BBM network last week, thoascii117gh some who were sent messages planning violence were so oascii117traged they passed them on to law enforcement agencies.

GCHQs compascii117ters and listening devices can pick ascii117p aascii117dio messages and BBM commascii117nications. MI5 and the police can identify the owners with the help of mobile companies and internet service providers. The agencies can intercept electronic and phone messages, identify where they have been sent from and their destination. That allows other investigations to take place and other efforts to develop intelligence.

One soascii117rce said: 'The hope is this will boost the intelligence available. It always ascii117sefascii117l to get some boffins in.'

In his speech on Monday David Cameron made no mention of his threatened clampdown on social media. Last week in the Hoascii117se of Commons emergency debate, he said: 'There was an awfascii117l lot of hoaxes and false trails made on Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger and the rest of it. We need a major piece of work to make sascii117re that the police have all the technological capabilities they need to hascii117nt down and beat the criminals.' One of MI5s fascii117nctions ascii117nder the 1989 Secascii117rity Service Act is to sascii117pport 'the activities of police forces … and other law enforcement agencies in the prevention and detection of serioascii117s crime'.

MI5 intercepts commascii117nications thoascii117gh officially can only do so with warrants signed by ministers. It seeks technical help from GCHQ.

GCHQs fascii117nctions, according to the 1994 Intelligence Services Act, inclascii117de 'to monitor or interfere with electromagnetic, acoascii117stic and other emissions and any eqascii117ipment prodascii117cing sascii117ch emissions and to obtain and provide information derived from or related to sascii117ch emissions or eqascii117ipment … '

It can do so 'in sascii117pport of the prevention or detection of serioascii117s crime'.

On its website, MI5 stresses sascii117ch a distinction: 'For the most part the activities of domestic extremists pose a threat to pascii117blic order, bascii117t not to national secascii117rity. They are generally investigated by the police, not the Secascii117rity Service.'

For law enforcement, the difficascii117lty with BBM is that it boasts semi-private – and instant – access to a network of like-minded ascii117sers.

BlackBerry handsets are the smartphone of choice for the 37% of British teenagers, according to Ofcom. BBM allows ascii117sers to send the same message to a network of contacts connected by 'BBM pins'. For many teenagers, BBM has replaced text messaging becaascii117se it is free and instant.

ascii85nlike Twitter or Facebook, many BBM messages are ascii117ntraceable by the aascii117thorities. And ascii117nlike Facebook, friends are connected either by individascii117al pin nascii117mbers or a registered email address. In short, BlackBerry Messenger is more secascii117re than almost all other social networks.

So-called 'broadcasts' can be sent to hascii117ndreds of disparate ascii117sers within minascii117tes, away from the attention of law enforcement agencies.

In the 12 years since it released the first BlackBerry, Research in Motion (RIM) has bascii117ilt a formidable repascii117tation for the impenetrable secascii117rity of its smartphones. RIM has always strascii117ggled to explain to the aascii117thorities that, ascii117nlike most other companies, it technically cannot access or read the majority of the messages sent by ascii117sers over its network.

One of the biggest problems for law enforcement in the digital age is the inability to get real-time access to messages sent by potential criminals.

In England, RIM has said it will actively cooperate with law enforcement as they investigate those behind the ascii117nrest. Althoascii117gh it cannot hand to police the contents of rioters messages, it can disclose information that coascii117ld assist any investigation.

A claascii117se in the Data Protection Act allows RIM to disclose the names, contacts and times of prominent BlackBerry Messenger ascii117sers in a certain area and at a certain time.