IS terror suspects employ German designed app to evade surveillance

​Hyderabad: The arrested IS suspects had employed a highly sophisticated encrypted email application in order to evade government surveillance on their communication data, according to NIA officials investigating into IS terror module in Hyderabad.

National Investigation Agency (NIA) sources told the media in New Delhi that Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, the terror suspect was using Tutanota, an innovative German-designed app that was offering end-to-end encrypted email to its users, sources said.

During interrogation, Yazdani and his brother Iliyas revealed all exchange of information with their handler regarding terror logistics and weapon deliveries was routed through Tutanota, which in Latin means "secure message."

The app, available on Android and iOS, is free and open source."With the built-in encryption only you can access your data. With Tutanota we want to give people a chance to keep their private communication private," stated the company in a blog post. Within two years of its launch, the service has reached almost one million users, according to the German startup.

The platform logs into no Internet Protocols in order to secure locations of senders or receivers. It automatically encrypts all data -- subjects, content and attachments included -- on user devices. Yazdani’s disclosures about encrypted emails alerted investigators to various communication tools the terror outfit might be using to avoid surveillance.