France wants backdoor entry

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve appears to be calling for backdoors in encryption so Western intelligence can read people's text messages.

As ever, the reason for this is: terrorism.

Popular apps, like WhatsApp and Signal, use strong end-to-end encryption to secure people's conversations from eavesdroppers, and the French for one don't like it at all.

"Many messages relating to the execution of terror attacks are sent using encryption; it is a central issue in the fight against terrorism," Cazeneuve said on Thursday. "France will make proposals. I have sent a number of them to my Germany colleague," he added, referring to German minister Thomas de Maiziere.

Cazeneuve declined to confirm whether or not France would demand special decryption powers from carriers and software makers, although he suggested message encryption should be fought at an international level. Curiously, it's reported that the French government is upset that Islamic State terrorists are using Telegram to communicate – an app that isn't thought to be super-super secure anyway. ®