Online messaging services such as WhatsApp should stop using “unbreakable” encryption software because it only benefits terrorists, the Home Secretary suggests today.

Amber Rudd, who is meeting representatives of WhatsApp in California today, says “real people” do not need such high levels of security, which has hindered the security services in their attempts to detect terrorist plots.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Ms Rudd said that this year’s spate of terrorist attacks had shown once again how terrorists use online platforms to “inspire and plan their acts of violence”.

WhatsApp - a messaging app that uses the internet rather than a mobile phone signal to send texts and pictures - is among the platforms that have been used by terrorists to communicate with each other.