In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences. Journos: The #ISIS video's "encrypted email" is confirmed fake. If any official responds as if it's real, push back. pic.twitter.com/fKHAAk1SAa — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 24, 2016

Edward Snowden has warned governments not to be fooled by the Islamic State's (ISIS) propaganda, which shows encrypted messages being sent.

A new propaganda video from ISIS -- which claims to show the Paris attackers and threatens Britain -- shows messages being sent using encrypted PGP emails. The method, which can easily be used, would only allow the person with the correct decryption code to read the message.


However the NSA whistleblower took to Twitter, after spending all weekend making terrible snow puns, to say the encryption was fake. He tweeted: "Does #ISIS see advantage in West limiting access to strong security? Juxtaposing "spooky" fake crypto with anti-crypto Cameron implies yes." The implication from Snowden is that the terror cell want to scare officials into banning encryption.

A second tweet said ISIS' encrypted email is "confirmed fake" and if officials who are against encrypted technology say it is real then they are wrong. In particular Snowden pointed out that the date on the message does not correspond to that of the encryption key and also that the encryption key itself was incorrect.

In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences. Does #ISIS see advantage in West limiting access to strong security? Juxtaposing "spooky" fake crypto with anti-crypto Cameron implies yes. — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 24, 2016


It's well known that ISIS commonly uses encryption technologies, which are cheap and require very little technical knowledge, to communicate away from the eyes of security agencies. Encrypted messaging app Telegram removed ISIS messages from its channels after they were discovered in 2015.

The attempt to show itself using encrypted emails by ISIS comes as a global backlash against the protection takes place. The UK has said it wants encrypted messages to be able to be decrypted by communications companies, when they are asked; the director of the FBI has said companies shouldn't use encryption, and California has presented an anti-encryption bill.

Meanwhile Google has said it wants to tackle ISIS propaganda by pushing it back to the dark web and using targeted adverts to put off potential fighters.