Posts Tagged ‘Rim’

RIM Outlines 4 Main Principles For “Lawful” Access To Data For Carriers

Research in Motion

In an update to RIM’s initial response to how the company would handle requests from governments to make encrypted data available to carriers, the BlackBerry maker says that “although it cannot disclose confidential regulatory discussions that take place with any government, RIM assures its customers that it genuinely tries to be as cooperative as possible with governments in the spirit of supporting legal and national security requirements, while also preserving the lawful needs of citizens and corporations.”

Additionally RIM has outlined 4 main principles that any carrier requesting “lawful” access to data be limited by:

  1. The carriers’ capabilities be limited to the strict context of lawful access and national security requirements as governed by the country’s judicial oversight and rules of law.
  2. The carriers’ capabilities must be technology and vendor neutral, allowing no greater access to BlackBerry consumer services than the carriers and regulators already impose on RIM’s competitors and other similar communications technology companies.
  3. No changes to the security architecture for BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers since, contrary to any rumors, the security architecture is the same around the world and RIM truly has no ability to provide its customers’ encryption keys. Also driving RIM’s position is the fact that strong encryption is a fundamental commercial requirement for any country to attract and maintain international business anyway and similarly strong encryption is currently used pervasively in traditional VPNs on both wired and wireless networks in order to protect corporate and government communications.
  4. RIM maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries.

RIM Outlines 4 Main Principles For “Lawful” Access To Data For Carriers is a post from: RIMarkable



Saudi Arabia BlackBerry Messenger Service is Back up

BlackBerry Arabic

If you recall my earlier post I talked about the Frazier vs Forman fight in 1973.  If I recall the fight correctly Frazier did get up several time, much like BBM service in Saudi Arabia being restored.  Either this is the calm before the storm or the government just realized this will impact them as well.  Either way the BBC reported that service was actually functional in Saudi Arabis.  OH the saga continues.  RIM has made many statement explaining how they cannot provide encryption keys but this has to be the most clearly explained on.

“RIM cannot accommodate any request for a copy of a customer’s encryption key, since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator or any third party, ever possess a copy of the key.”

This may have to do with recent US conversations.  Its funny if the country shuts off service then turns it back on you are lead to believe RIM complied.  Let’s see if RIM makes any statement explain they have not provided the government with a solution because…well read the quote above

[Via SMR]

Saudi Arabia BlackBerry Messenger Service is Back up is a post from: RIMarkable



Ban RIM: Round-up of Who is Playing this Game

Security

This story is not going away anytime soon.  Lebanon just joined in on the party of banning BlackBerry Services.  Most of this is focused on BBM and Email but 5 countries is nothing to take lightly.

  1. India
  2. United Arab Emirates (UAE)
  3. Saudi Arabia
  4. Indonesia
  5. Lebanon

I don’t believe I have missed anyone, but I am sure this list will grow tomorrow.  At some point you have to wonder what percent of RIM’s market is made up across these five countries.  It is almost like a game of chicken, on one side your customer’s privacy on the other your revenue stream.  Something tells me that this game will continue until RIM bows to pressure.  Privacy does have a cost, keep watching this saga to see if RIM has to define the cost to the world.

Ban RIM: Round-up of Who is Playing this Game is a post from: RIMarkable



This Week in Google Reinvented BlackBerry App Security

Security

I was listening to This Week in Google Episode 54 and they talked about new concerns over application security. To give a little background, Android had a recent issue where a wallpaper app was sending user data to some server in China.  After the app was pulled from the Android Market, Google did an investigation and it turned out the app was in fact safe (but not necessarily coded as cleanly as it should have been).  
So, on to the reinventing BlackBerry application security.  They started talking about how the user has no understanding as to why an application needs certain access rights.  This is a black box on all platforms. Most user just okay through the install process and don’t give it a second thought.  For example, why does a wallpaper need access to internet, phone, contact list? (and the list goes on).  Quickly, the real issue was narrowed down to internet access and suggestions started coming.  Maybe the user should be prompted each time an application wants to access the internet with what URL, etc. This sounds nice in theory, but reminds me of Windows Vista UAC.  It evolved to having a UAC model so the user appoves the sites an app can go to on the Internet.
The entire time, I was sitting there dumb founded, thinking HOLY COW! BlackBerry does this today.  If you install an app like Pandora you authorize it to go to http:// or http://pandora.com.  By default only Pandora.com is selected.  The same applies to Google Voice and many other applications.  I had to laugh because BlackBerry is regarded as being secure and outdated, but as the toy OS’s evolve they need to adopt the security of RIM.  This Week in Google is one of my favorite podcasts next to SMRPodcast, but it was funny that no one on the show said RIM has somewhat solved this issue.  Just goes to show that the old dog still has many tricks.

This Week in Google Reinvented BlackBerry App Security is a post from: RIMarkable



Mike Lazaridis: If they can’t deal with the Internet, they should shut it off

Mike Lazaridis

So now Indonesia and Lebanon is now considering a ban of BlackBerry devices. The list is getting longer each day, but RIM does not see to alarmed.  RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis in an interview with the Wall Street Journal made a rather bold statement:

“This is about the Internet,” Mr. Lazaridis said. “Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can’t deal with the Internet, they should shut it off.”

I have to respect a CEO that makes bold clear statements like this.  Although not 100% true I agree with the comment.  Should you ban Google for supporting https (SSL/TLS) ie encryption on GMail and Google.com search?  He seems confident the situation could get resolved, but talking down to people is not exactly a good way to work towards a resolution.  His next statement was just… well you read it.

“We are going to continue to work with them to make sure they understand the reality of the Internet,” he said. “A lot of these people don’t have Ph.Ds, and they don’t have a degree in computer science.”

Maybe I am reading into this wrong, but it sounds condescending, then again he dropped out of college to start RIM.

Source WSJ

Mike Lazaridis: If they can’t deal with the Internet, they should shut it off is a post from: RIMarkable