Slashdot Mirror
BlackBerry Services To Be Halted In UAE
WrongSizeGlass writes "Bloomberg is reporting RIM's BlackBerry Messenger, e-mail and Web browsing services will be suspended in the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East's business hub, starting October 11th due to security concerns. RIM faces similar restrictions in India. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement on state-run Emirates News Agency, 'In their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the UAE.' A senior Indian government official said, 'Though RIM has been fully cooperating ever since the matter was taken up with it in 2008, reports of the company's move to set up a server in China forced us to look at it in a different way.'"
Everything in UAE is either to do with censorship, or to do with money. Or both. I submitted this story myself earlier. Note that there's also coverage on this from the BBC here. Note that the TRA (the UAE's telecom regulatory agency) last year sent messages to Blackberry owners in the country instructing them to install an update which would improve performance. Not only did it not improve performance (actually caused crashes and shortened battery life for a reason you'll see in a second), but it actually forwarded received messages onto the goverment. Slashdot covered it last year here.
They're a scummy government. Blackberries are fairly popular in UAE (the lack of snooping is actually a plus, btw) and by threatening to make them illegal the government there is trying to force RIM who make them to hand over encryption keys or open up access to its customers in some other manner. If RIM have any sense, and I'm sure they have, they'll call TRA's bluff.
UAE's government ain't that nice and the country is riddled with corruption and duplicity. Hell, this is the country where all the shops sell MP5 players. Why? Because they're newer than MP3 players. I try to find that funny but after a ten minute argument with someone from there who kept insisting his device was superior because "yeah, but mine's an MP5 player", I just lost the humour along the way, somewhere. UAE also does its best to fuck up Skype and any other VoIP services. (They don't do a very effective job, btw.)
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Greater commitment to democracy? India IS a democracy - a full fledged one, from 63 years! They have some flaws, but then which democracy doesn't?
BlackBerrys are assembled in Canada, Mexico and Hungary. Most of the parts are manufactured from all across Asia (the low-end batteries are exclusively made in China, nearly all screens are made in Japan). It doesn't really look like that's really going to change in the future. In fact, I really don't know why RIM doesn't push this point more... it'll certainly please those pundits crying about the destruction of North America's manufacturing base. I mean, there's a BlackBerry factory right in Waterloo.
As for India's complaint, the summary is leaving out some important information. Couple years back they pressed on RIM, and RIM relented, agreeing to allow Indian security agencies access to BB comms on request (they have similar arrangements with North American law enforcement and intelligence agencies I imagine). RIM did not agree to setup a local NOC (the server where all BB traffic flows) in India. Lately, RIM agreed to set up a NOC in China (giving Chinese agencies somewhat easier access to BB traffic), in exchange for being able to do business there. India is ticked off cause they wanted the same setup and is now pushing again. It's not a question of India getting access to local BB traffic, its a question of how easy it is for them to get it.
"... services will be suspended"
This, IMHO, is only hinting at the real problem: Blackberry internet services are provided through a central server (BIS or BES) that acts as a proxy; the handheld device doesn't access the HTTP, POP, or IMAP services directly (at least with the provided apps).
RIM's encryption is pretty darned good, but this "server in the middle" method of operation gives some Security folks headaches because of the possibilities for mischief.
While it is very nice for corporate monitoring and control, the downside is that a government can easily shut down BB services by blocking the server. If the BB was a true Internet client, this would not be the case.
You have the right to remain silent. If you don't, anything you say will be misquoted and used against you.