UAE Blackberry Ban

[Lucchese DeCavalcante]

RIM Blackberry has so far not released an official statement following news from the United Arab Emirates that it plans to close down Blackberry services due to security risks.
Over the past few years, the Emirates authorities have been negotiating with RIM over the fact that they are not able to monitor peer-to-peer communication on the devices. This, they say, creates an unacceptable risk when it comes to terrorism, especially in a sensitive zone such as theirs.

If no agreement is found, Blackberry users in the Emirates will only be able to use the basic telephone functions of their devices from the month of October this year.

It is also reported that Saudi Arabia has a similar issue with Blackberry.

The fact that messages cannot be monitored on the Blackberry system is in fact one of the main selling points for many business people for whom confidentiality is extremely important. The youth in the Emirates region have also reportedly seen the Blackberry as one way to avoid “big brother”.
It is reported that under RIM's security system, customers have their own encryption key and "only the customer ever possesses a copy" of that key.

RIM says it does not have a "master key" and adds there is no "back door" that would let it or any third party gain unauthorized access to the key.

It is not clear at this point whether the ban by the Emirates will affect travelers visiting the country or whether it will only apply to resident accounts.