RIM Faces Ban in U.A.E., Is There a Black Box for Consumer Data?
We expect to see a new BlackBerry later this morning, giving RIM a chance to regain its place in the smart phone market. But amidst the excitement of the new product reveal, RIM is also battling governments on the global front. The United Arab Emirates in particular is considering a ban on several RIM products, citing security issues.
The ban would take place in October, applying to domestic and roaming RIM users. What the U.A.E. government wants is local servers in the country, and subsequently the ability to monitor RIM consumer data. As it stands now, RIM’s servers are outside of the country and consumer data is encrypted.
RIM issued a statement this morning, assuring that its networks are secure and it has no plans of giving up consumer data information to the U.A.E. government. Yet RIM has been able to offer other countries an acceptable workaround to address similar requests. Russia and China have pressured RIM to allow them monitoring rights, and a recent deal with India has kept RIM on track for its summer product reveal.
So we wonder, how were these other governments circumvented, and what can RIM offer the U.A.E. at this point? Our own John Furrier wonders if RIM’s got some magical powers we don’t know about, saying,
“On one hand, RIM says they have no power to get a hold of customer info (due to end-to-end encryption), and now they are saying they are offering something. It’s a big contradiction to me. This is a big concern for enterprises, not to mention the US government. RIM will have some sort of “black box” power? That is my question, and something that needs to be explored.”
A matter of politics, not technicalities. Or perhaps patriotism? US officials have few security issues with RIM or its encryption, and have heeded against the U.A.E.’s dangerous precedents should the ban take effect. Even President Obama retained his BlackBerry once assuming office. Utilized by the CIA for its built-in data structure, the “magic” middle man is theoretically nonexistent and impossible to conceive, but a necessary issue in light of mobile and cloud security on a worldwide scale.
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