The author of “City of Gold” a history of Dubai, Jim Krane said, “The U.A.E. has never been a place that offered much in the way of electronic privacy. “The government makes no secret that it monitors electronic communication, including text messages, phone calls and e-mail. The revelation that secure BlackBerry data is frustratingly out of the government’s reach only confirms this.”
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This is definitely some PMC 2.0 news, just because many contractors carry BlackBerry smart phones, and many companies have management teams that depend upon this phone. So imagine all these guys having to give up those phones just to do business in the middle east?
One interesting tidbit with all of this is that these countries really don’t have a problem with iPhones, just because they can easily monitor the traffic on those devices. That is good and bad for contractors that have iPhones. It kind of confirms what the best phone is for privacy–the BlackBerry. Although there are still ways to make iPhones secure, it’s just with this crackdown on ‘CrackBerry’s’, it seems that the BlackBerry is the winner.
Below, I posted three articles. The last one is from 2005, but still a good one on how PIN messaging works for BlackBerry phones. The other articles detail what fears the various middle eastern countries have in regards to the BlackBerry. Interesting stuff. –Matt
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UAE crackdown on BlackBerry services to extend to foreign visitors
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — The United Arab Emirates’ crackdown on BlackBerry services will extend to foreign visitors, putting the government’s concerns over the smartphones in direct conflict with the country’s ambitions to be a business and tourism haven.
The UAE’s telecommunications regulator said Monday that travelers to the city-state of Dubai and the important oil industry center of Abu Dhabi will — like 500,000 local subscribers — have to do without BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web services starting Oct. 11, even when they carry phones issued in other countries. The handsets themselves will still be allowed for phone calls.
UAE authorities say the move is based on security concerns because BlackBerry transmissions are automatically routed to company computers abroad, where it is difficult for local authorities to monitor for illegal activity or abuse.
Critics of the crackdown say it is also a way for the country’s conservative government to further control content it deems politically or morally objectionable.
About 100,000 travelers pass through Dubai’s airport each day, making it the busiest airport in the Middle East. The new restrictions could leave time-pressed business travelers hurrying through, many of them changing planes for other destinations, without access to their e-mail or the Web.
In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley called the restrictions “a move in the wrong direction.”
Story here.
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UAE BlackBerry ban set to be emulated throughout Persian Gulf states
2 August, 2010
Blackberry mobile services banned in and UAE BlackBerry ban set to be emulated throughout Persian Gulf statesBecause of security reasons The U.A.E. government has decided to bar Blackberry mobile services such as e-mail and text messaging. U.A.E is not the only gulf country to do this. Some other countries like Kuwait and Bahrain have also raised the same issue.
There has been a clash between U.A.E government and a Waterloo based, the Smartphone’s producer “Research In Motion “over the use of Mobile services. In view of government officials, these services might be misused against the government. So the decision to bar the services has been taken. However the company officials have not given any information in this regard.The author of “City of Gold” a history of Dubai, Jim Krane said, “The U.A.E. has never been a place that offered much in the way of electronic privacy. “The government makes no secret that it monitors electronic communication, including text messages, phone calls and e-mail. The revelation that secure BlackBerry data is frustratingly out of the government’s reach only confirms this.”It should be noted that, highly encrypted data is used by Blackberry. The data instantly routed through the global network. Because of this encrypted data the government feels much difficulty to monitor communications.
Story here.
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Is Your Boss Watching Your BlackBerry?
Lawsuit reveals even device-to-device PIN messages can be logged.
Jaikumar Vijayan
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 01:00 AM PST
Private messages exchanged using corporate BlackBerry wireless devices may not be quite so private after all. In fact, even the so-called PIN messages that many users thought were untraceable can be logged.
The lack of BlackBerry privacy became clear in a lawsuit filed in Toronto by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The bank submitted scores of BlackBerry e-mails and PIN messages as evidence that several former executives took confidential information from the company and tried to recruit others while they were still employees of the bank.
The lawsuit was filed against Genuity Capital Markets, a Toronto-based investment management firm established by six former CIBC employees. David Kassie, Genuity’s CEO, declined to comment about the suit.
PIN Privacy?
The messages that were submitted as evidence included ones sent between BlackBerries using the devices’ personal identification numbers instead of e-mail addresses.
That form of BlackBerry communication has been considered by many users to be more private than sending messages between e-mail addresses, because PIN messages are sent directly from one device to another. Standard BlackBerry e-mail is routed via an enterprise server and can be logged and archived like other e-mail messages.
BlackBerry devices are manufactured by Toronto-based Research In Motion, which claims over 2 million subscribers at thousands of companies worldwide.
“PIN messaging is common in financial circles and workgroups,” said an executive at a Toronto-based technology vendor who asked not to be identified. “It’s kind of like an SMS or instant message” that can’t be monitored or logged by the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the executive said. Thus, many people use the feature to exchange private or sensitive information.
Messaging Misconceptions
The fact that CIBC logged such messages is bound to surprise many people, said Thomas Smith, a director of the International BlackBerry User Group in Mountain View, California.
“I wasn’t aware that PIN messages could be logged, but I’m not completely shocked either,” said Smith, who administers more than 500 BlackBerry devices at his Houston-based employer, which he asked not to be named. Users of such devices “without question” believe that PIN messages can’t be logged, he said.
But that’s a mistake, said Rob Moffat, president of Wallace Wireless, an Amherst, New York-based vendor of software for BlackBerry devices. “There is some misunderstanding about the ability to archive such messages,” he said.
The reality is that such messages can indeed be logged, said Moffat, whose company sells software that, among other things, can be used to capture BlackBerry PIN communications. The function is increasingly being used by financial services firms and government agencies to log BlackBerry communication, he said. “There’s Nasdaq, NASD and Sarbanes-Oxley stuff that these companies need to comply with,” he said.
The news should come as no surprise to security professionals, said Pete Lindstrom, an analyst at Malvern, Pennsylvania-based Spire Consulting. “Most people think of peer-to-peer communications as a person-to-person thing,” he said. “But somewhere in between, there’s almost always a server.”
Story here.