BlackBerry CEO 'Disturbed' By Apple's Hard Line On Encryption (theinquirer.net)

An anonymous reader writes: BlackBerry CEO John Chen said he is "disturbed" by Apple's tough approach to encryption and user privacy, warning that the firm's attitude is harmful to society. Earlier this year, Chen said in response to Apple resisting the government's demands to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters: "We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good." During BlackBerry's Security Summit in New York this week, Chen made several more comments about Apple's stance on encryption. "One of our competitors, we call it 'the other fruit company,' has an attitude that it doesn't matter how much it might hurt society, they're not going to help," he said. "I found that disturbing as a citizen. I think BlackBerry, like any company, should have a basic civil responsibility. If the world is in danger, we should be able to help out." He did say there was a lot of "nonsense" being reported about BlackBerry and its approach to how it handles user information. "Of course, there need to be clear guidelines. The guidelines we've adopted require legal assets. A subpoena for certain data. But if you have the data, you should give it to them," he said. "There's some complete nonsense about what we can and can't do. People are mad at us that we let the government have the data. It's absolute garbage. We can't do that." Chen also warned that mandatory back doors aren't a good idea either, hinting at the impending Investigatory Powers Bill. "There's proposed legislation in the U.S., and I'm sure it will come to the EU, that every vendor needs to provide some form of a back door. That is not going to fly at all. It just isn't," he said.

Comments

Fuck blackberry

[Anonymous Coward]

Glad their insecure piece of shit platform is nearly dead

Re: Fuck blackberry

[Dog-Cow]

RIM has always caved in to Government demands for access to BBM data. The CEO's stance is consistent, even as it's also stupid.

Re: Fuck blackberry

[Quzak]

It isn't secure if they give access to any entity...even governments...especially governments. We the people demand encryption that will foil even the strongest government attacks.

Re:Fuck blackberry

[Plumpaquatsch]

Glad their insecure piece of shit platform is nearly dead

It isn't, they just signed a 5 year deal with some US government for crisis communications.

"Crisis communications" is the main activity of Blackberry's CEO these days.

Define "Greater Good"

[Edis Krad]

"We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good."

I guess Mr. Chen and Mr. Cook have very different ideas of what the greater good is.

Re:Define "Greater Good"

[Anonymous Coward]

BB is a failed company. They failed to anticipate the market, and they failed to adapt. Their last gasp is to tear down what others have built with nonsensical arguments in favor of more government surveillance.

Apparently, the US government doesn't agree. Witness SOCOM purchasing iPhones in a recent Slashdot article.

Re:Define "Greater Good"

[Kobun]

Indeed. I'd also like to hear how Mr. Chen proposes to follow his vision of the greater good, where he has access to everyone's data and will hand it over for any trumped-up warrant, without a backdoor in his soon-to-be-extinct Blackberry's.

Or is he going to do the politician thing and define "backdoor" to mean something conveniently different than what Blackberry has.

Re:Define "Greater Good"

[BarbaraHudson]

He's just saying that because Blackberry (then RIM or Research In Motion), after making a big hype about how secure they were, gave the keys to Saudi Rrabis, the United Arab Emerites, and the RCMP

Just days after BlackBerry’s CEO stressed the company's network has no back doors for law enforcement, a news report alleges the RCMP obtained the ability to decrypt communications on BlackBerry devices.

Vice reports that the RCMP was able to crack PIN-to-PIN messages related to Operation Clemenza, a large-scale probe into organized crime in Quebec. The investigation launched in 2010 and resulted in dozens of arrests in 2014.

The RCMP isn’t keeping it a secret that it used BlackBerry communications to crack the case. It states on its website that its use of these messages marked “the first time that this technique was used on such a large scale in a major investigation” in North America.

"Over one million private messages were intercepted and analyzed as evidence using the PIN to PIN interception technique," the RCMP said.

But according to Vice, court documents show the RCMP had access to a BlackBerry decryption key — a piece of code that would allow any communications between two BlackBerry devices to be hacked and read.

Having caved in, he's doubling down rather than admitting he should have refused, fought in court, and pulled service out of countries that demanded access.

Keep sucking and I might give you a govt contract

[Anonymous Coward]

Blackberry's CEO is just positioning itself as the cocksucker for governments.
Anything for some more contracts, I guess. They need whatever they can get.

Another clueless CEO

[zerofoo]

John Chen is a bit like gun prohibitionists. It doesn't matter if government requires manufacturers to install back doors. Eventually someone will develop encryption software without a back door - and government will still not have a key.

Outlawing guns or encryption guarantees that only outlaws will possess those things.

Apple is smart enough to realize this. They understand that throwing their users under the bus now will not make us safer later.

Very interesting perspective.

[kamapuaa]

I wish they could have gotten the CEO of Pan Am, Zenith, or RCA to speak up on the subject.

I'm disturbed...

[DiSKiLLeR]

I'm disturbed by BlackBerry's stance on the situation.

Under no circumstances should backdoors be allowed.

Some Irony There...

[TheEyes]

Blackberry's CEO is just positioning itself as the cocksucker for governments.
Anything for some more contracts, I guess. They need whatever they can get.

A bit ironic, as part of the reason for Blackberry's decline is that businesses can't trust they won't hand over their secure communications to whatever entity asks for it.

Re:Some Irony There...

[Dog-Cow]

The GP meant that RIM handing over the keys are not why businesses have abandoned BB. I agree with the nice Coward. Businesses have abandoned BB because everyone wants iPhones or Android phones. They have more apps, and they work with whatever computer you have at home. Whatever BB has done is too little, too late.

That ruins the Blackberry brand for me...

[BlueCoder]

And they use to have such a good rep... oh well, someone flush the toilet.

Apple did what they should do for encryption. They refused to release a signed version of their firmware that would allow any phone with that firmware to be brute force cracked. Even if they took the actual phone into their possession and loaded the special firmware themselves only on that phone it would mean tens of thousands of requests from law enforcement and courts all over the world. They couldn't say no to any of them. A logistical nightmare that doesn't make Apple any money; break even at best but with lots of negative press.

It's a no win situation. And you can be sure that further into the future they will endeavor to make it impossible for even them to crack their own phones no matter what firmware the device uses.

Didn't you hear? The USA just bought a ton of apple phones for military special forces.

196 "back doors"

[Vitriol Angst]

Every country will eventually NEED to get access to that data. It's far more likely to be used to squash liberty than to solve the cases for 3 or 4 bad guys. If you need to hack a phone to catch someone, you are fishing. The dumb criminals of course will leave the evidence there -- but also everywhere else. The terrorist cell however, will use a burner phone or a damn pigeon.

America will not get more secure by more spying, but by stronger communities and job opportunities. Every one of these attacks is coming from a loner.

I think the thing is he has nothing to fear

[rsilvergun]

economically. Not at his income level. There's little doubt he's got a healthy golden parachute. Being afraid for things like surveillance generally requires quite a bit of economic insecurity. You have to believe the world can and will turn on you at some point, which is an odd thought to have if you've spent all or most of your adult life without worrying about money. It's an entirely different outlook on life you'd only get from a member of the ruling class. The 20th century equivalent to "Let them eat cake".

Re: I think the thing is he has nothing to fear

[Anonymous Coward]

Chen's argument is also an irrelevant straw man ,

Apple has provided all relevant data it has when presented with a valid warrant.

However, by increasing use of PKI & end to end encryption ,Apple has been moving towards a point where that data it has is getting less and less, and may eventually be so little it's irrelevant to asking for.

What Apple has resisted is reversing that direction.

His argument is politically appealing to factions within government who want back doors, but as government, would you want YOUR devices to have a back door that a foreign government could access on presenting a warrant ?

Apples position is essentially, we want to sell you a phone - access to your data is between you and who ever is asking for it.

Blackberry's position is they want to sell you a phone, and then will give your data to whomever it is politically expedient to do so.

I'll take the "other fruit company" thank you.

I wonder which company is in tune with its users?

[EmperorOfCanada]

My long time complaint has been that Blackberry was very abusive and disregarded the desires of its users. They would allow telcos to molest their products to maintain a "good" relationship with the telcos. They would allow IT departments to molest their products to maintain a "good" relationship with the IT departments, and now they seem to want the jackbooted thugs who run our secret police to molest their products, but for what?

They let other people turn their phones into turds an the market spoke.

Now he is whining because Apple won't turn their phones into turds on the behest of some bunch of assholes.

The telcos put blackberries onto the bottom shelf the second the iPhone came along, the IT departments switched to everything else, and the jackbooted thugs will probably treat BB with the same respect. This makes me smile.

For those who aren't Canadian, BB epitomizes everything that the rest of Canada hates about central Canada (where RIM is located). This unrelenting bowing to authority. This treating of the people as peasants who don't know what is best for themselves. A pseudo intellectual belief that the rest of the world will somehow come around to their delusions and make it their reality.

Re:Keep sucking and I might give you a govt contra

[gweihir]

And that is just it: Sucking up to the authorities in a police-state like the US is _not_ for the greater good. Apple has it right this time, what is demanded of them goes way too far.