Slashdot Mirror
Blackberry Gives India Access To Servers
Meshach writes "As happened earlier in Saudi Arabia Blackberry has reached a deal that allows Indian authorities access to the transmissions of hand held devices. Much of the fear comes from worries about terrorists: Pakistani-based militants used mobile and satellite phones in the 2008 attacks that killed 166 people in Mumbai."
How long before every country decides that in order to allow RIM to operate they need to open up their servers?
The better question may be "where has this already happened with a gag order attached to the request?"
This is like banning box cutters on planes because the 9/11 terrorists used them, as if terrorist can't figure out how to enocde their messages in other ways. Terrorism isn't the reasons for this, repression is.
Oh, I get it now ...
If it is Saudi Arabia and the UAE, it is all about censorship ...
But if it is India, it is a move against the terrorists ...
It is all about spin ...
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By overtly giving access to these governments they can scan for US or European business partners (hopefully RIM limits to the local to that country traffic). This allows them an unfair competitive advantage as they can then direct local companies often state owned or controlled to change bids or marketing approaches. Saudi Arabia this might apply to leveraging better prices from suppliers or from gaining a better advantage in the financial sector, and in India it means they can now cherry pick information related to manufacturing deals to gain advantage over the people looking for competitive bids between India and other outsource manufacturing (and outsource software development).
This is not good. Corporations should strongly consider if RIM is a viable solution at this point.
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
anyone truly needing encryption will manage their own layered end-to-end solution or have someone competant handle that for them.
the rest of us will be denied our privacy and the government will come off looking like its 'tough on crime'.
oh, and a private corporation gets to keep a huge marketshare and shit on its customers. or maybe its customers' customers.
ie, business as usual.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Ah - and decrypting the messages would have solved the problems, as it is phyiscally impossible to write plaintext 'in-code' AND encrypting it?
The whole thing is bloody nonsense - if I were to plan any attacks, I certainly wouldn't just trust the encryption by a mobile provider as my 'safe haven'...
Pakistan has been the (alleged and many a times proven) source of funding for most terrorist attacks. Blackberry has been the alleged/potential medium for communication for terrorists that can not be traced. I see nothing draconian about Indian government requesting Blackberry asking for tracking their data, specially when ever other telecom provider does.
Btw. even today there is a news headline about how Indian police cracked a murder victim by tracking his cellphone calls:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Infosys-manager-confesses-to-killing-wife-held/articleshow/6308212.cms
May be Indian police men are not able to track such communications in Blackberries.
Um... so most people are not proficient in non-native languages. Oh wow, you've really stumbled upon something new here. zzzz
Or they could have realized that access to a market with over fifteen percent of the world's population would let them rake in more cash than the additional sales from demonstrating security. Most people with Blackberries want a smartphone, not Fort Knox.
I'm an Indian. And I don't think the loss of privacy is worth the few lives that terrorism takes. The chance of me dying in a terrorist attack is lower than me being struck by lightning. To answer your post, there are some sacrifices that are worth it. And this is one.
The difference between US and India is that with Indian authorities this was released to the press. US instead puts a gag order and then probably gets everything they want.
NSA probably has a back room in blackberry - or has the encryption codes itself.. !
"Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA's spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA's charter or with FISA," Klein's wrote. "And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals' phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens."
One of the documents is titled "Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco," and is dated 2002. The others are allegedly a design document instructing technicians how to wire up the taps, and a document that describes the equipment installed in the secret room.
Read More http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70619#ixzz0wavMN6aB"