Stockholm Suspect Is 2nd Terrorist To Use WhatsApp To Sow Fear & Attack Civilians

Recent reports focused on the vulnerability of popular messaging service WhatsApp to accounts being hijacked. However, the death of four people and injury to 15 others after a terrorist stole a beer lorry mowed people on Friday in a central shopping district in Stockholm could place the heat on the platform by security experts. It is because Rakhmat Akilov, the suspect, boasted on WhatsApp to a jihadi friend that the terror attack was an order from ISIS leaders in Syria.

Facebook Owns WhatsApp

The 39-year-old Akilov, an Uzbekistan national who failed to get asylum, allegedly told a friend through WhatsApp that he ran over 10 people in Stockholm, Express reports. Facebook acquired WhatsApp in February 2014 for $1.5 billion. It is the largest acquisition of Facebook so far.

The lorry that Akilov hijacked belongs to Spendrups, a Swedish brewery. After ramming people, he crashed the stolen vehicle into the Ahlens department store. Among his victims was Chris Bevington, a British father who was the director of Spotify, the popular music-streaming service, and a Belgian woman and two Swedes, The Independent reports. Besides boasting on WhatsApp that he rammed the lorry upon order of ISIS, he also told the Aftonbladet newspaper he did it because Sweden bombed his country.

When his application for residency in Sweden was denied, Akilov became a wanted man because he did not comply with a deportation order. Although Akilov was considered a marginal character by Swedish authorities, according to Dan Eliasson, national police chief, now all eyes are not only on him but also WhatsApp which has more than 500 million monthly active users. These users share daily 700 million photos and 100 million videos.

London Terror Suspect Also Used Platform

Akilov is not the first terror suspect to use WhatsApp. Panda Security reports that in March, terror suspect Khalid Masood also used the messaging app before the attack in London. Like the FBI issue with Apple’s encryption system for the iPhone, WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption could mean legal investigators probing Akilov would likely encounter the same problem as the FBI did with Apple.