Hackers have defaced the BlackBerry blog in a move to intimidate Research In Motion over a statement that the company would lawfully assist the police during the investigation of the London and Tottenham riots. The London riots spread at such an extraordinary rate and with apparent orchestration that shows evidence that social networking and messaging systems may have led the way—as a result, Scotland Yard may seek assistance from BlackBerry to peer into their network in order to discover ringleaders who spread messages leading to rioting and looting.

The hackers who defaced the BlackBerry blog website took deep umbrage at this and decided to leave a message behind.

The defacement is signed by a hacker with the handle “TriCk – TeaMp0isoN” and was accompanied by a message to RIM about consequences if they decided to assist police: “We have access to your database which includes your employees information; e.g – Addresses, Names, Phone Numbers etc. – now if u assist the police, we _WILL_ make this information public and pass it onto rioters … do you really want a bunch of angry youths on your employees doorsteps?”

Without comment from RIM, it’s unclear if the hackers had cracked an administrator password or used a flaw in the blog software to deface the website. Looking at the way that the defacement affects the page, it appears that they may not have managed to root the underlying file system but instead probably gained access to the database. Someone with access to the file system could have replaced the entire page with the message; the defacement instead inserted the message inside the page.

What the hackers in this case may not understand is that even if RIM does hand over messages sent over their BlackBerry Messenger network authorities still cannot read them. All messages sent over the BBM network are automatically encrypted and over the past few years, RIM has repeatedly let multiple governments know that they have no “back door” or “master key” with which to read the messages.

Although, the Metropolitan Police may not need decrypted messages if they have access to one of the phones of the rioters and get the messages from them and then follow traffic patterns in the network in order to identify the phones that initially spread them.

Furthermore, it may already be too late. Even though the hackers defaced the BlackBerry blog on Tuesday, chances are good that the Metropolitan police already obtained writs to get the information from RIM once they determined that the BBM had part in organizing the riots. According to experts in UK law, if RIM did receive such a writ they may be gagged from commenting on what direct assistance they have given to the police.

The role of smartphones and social networks in the London riots

In this era, smartphones are almost ubiquitous and have entered into the culture across every level and class strata. Citizens have become the vanguard of a new type of journalistic collective by pointing their smartphone cameras at events they’re mixed up in.

As even social media and the ability for smartphones to emit their location coordinates which allows news sites and journalists to build time-lines and active maps of how the riots are spreading and where news is happening. In attempting to combat the riots–or at least sweep up the damage left in their wake–the @RiotCleanup account has gained in excess of 86,000 followers in almost two days.

As much as social networks and mobile phones might have been part of spreading the riots; they are certainly also going to be part of reconnecting the population with stability once the fires die down.

The message from the hackers

Read the entire missive posted by the hackers when they defaced the BlackBerry blog below,

Dear RIM,

You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all, the Police are looking to arrest as many people as possible to save themselves from embarrassment…. if you do assist the police by giving them chat logs, gps locations, customer information & access to peoples BlackBerryMessengers you will regret it, we have access to your database which includes your employees information; e.g – Addresses, Names, Phone Numbers etc. – now if u assist the police, we _WILL_ make this information public and pass it onto rioters…. do you really want a bunch of angry youths on your employees doorsteps? Think about it…. and don’t think that the police will protect your employees, the police can’t protect themselves let alone protect others….. if you make the wrong choice your database will be made public, save yourself the embarrassment and make the right choice. don’t be a puppet..

p.s – we do not condone in innocent people being attacked in these riots nor do we condone in small businesses being looted, but we are all for the rioters that are engaging in attacks on the police and government…. and before anyone says “the blackberry employees are innocent” no they are not! They are the ones that would be assisting the police.

[Image credit: Dan Istitene / Getty Images.]