The Blackberry Question: Where do we stand?

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

Security agencies around the Middle East and Asia wants to have access to Blackberry phones when a national security issue warrants it. From Saudi Arabia, to India governments have been pushing RIM (makers of Blackberry phones) to provide easy accessibility to encrypted Blackberry communications to security agencies in case of a national security matter.

Where do we stand?

 

[Kiranga]

Government control tupu. Kama unataka security / control kweli tengeneza system yako mwenyewe. Wateja hawataki censorship.

Tanzania is doing nothing as far as I know, primarily because probably nobody has heard anything about this, and those who have think this is not real for us. Of course, some of our sensitive info is passing through Yahoo Mail, until very recently some senior Ikulu people were using Yahoo, that is how bad it is. I never heard anybody complaining to Yahoo in the same manner.

On the other hand, if governments can build cases (there are a few leitimate cases, very few and far in between especially for countries like Tanzania) to convince Swiss banks to divulge sensitive bankin information, they should be able to do the same with R.I.M on an "as need" basis. Bottom line is we need a global protocol with established standards. Ama sivyo rais akimshuku mkewe anajivinjari na vijana anaweza kutuma maombi R.I.M apewe access emails za mamaa.

Look at this scenario. "His Majesty King Mswati's palace is requesting access to phone number so and so to address a matter of grave national security" translation "King Mswati suspects the Minister of Justice of doing him a great injustice by sleepin with the King's umpteenth wife, so hook a monarch up with the paper(less?) trail"

My concern is more that R.I.M may be able to eavesdrop than the government won't be able to track people's emails.

For the end user side

1. Force all sensitive communication to be encrypted by sender and able to be decrypted by recipient (Software like Entrust can provide add on plug-ins to existing email software such as Outlook). If you have the slightest chance of being in the "sensitive info" loop, you won't be able to decrypt the emails until you participate in this encryption/ decryption system.

2. Whatever we do, do not force a native solution from R.I.M that will force them to automatically include encryption/ decryption. Some people do not handle sensitive info and forced encryption /decryption will just be unnecessary hardship.

I don't like the overnment imposition raised by the middle eastern countries.I know a thin or two about security, and what they are doin is akin to forcin people to lock their doors reardless of the situation, some people's houses are in relative safe neihborhood and in the heat of the night, the security of lockin their doors and windows may not be as important as the comfort of leavin windows anddoors open. It may even prove to be a matter of life and death.

So yes, overnments can leitimately force all the people dealin with sensitive government info to enroll in some type of encryption system, but banning Blackberries due to security concerns is an overkill, some may even pose a question on whether this newly found concern for security is really enuine or is there some other political motive that is not apparent immediately.

I wouldn't put it past the Arabs to want to censor what people do on their phones. This could very easily be more about somethin like porn and government control than security.

 

[Mzee Mwanakijiji]

You know I think they are more concerned about control.. Blackberry is out of their control. But, I'm surprised that their laws have not caught up with technological advances. I think our National Security Act of 1970 still would cover the issues raised by Blackberry encryption. Others somebody need to have a look may be we are in the same boat with the fellas in the ME.

 

[Kiranga]

You know I think they are more concerned about control.. Blackberry is out of their control. But, I'm surprised that their laws have not caught up with technological advances. I think our National Security Act of 1970 still would cover the issues raised by Blackberry encryption. Others somebody need to have a look may be we are in the same boat with the fellas in the ME.

Of course it is about control, and of course we are in the same boat. The US Government is in the same boat, but they are smart enough to know that demanding too much access will irk a lot of libertarians, from the paranoid to the reasonable.

If you are talking about keepin your stuff secret from R.I.M then another layer of encryption and some key based magic could take care of that, but if you are talking about you want to have access to any American's or Saudi's or Tanzanian's emails, that could prove problematic. The issue is first of all the email system is centralized by a Canadian company, second, if one wants to really keep their stuff private, another layer of encryption will make sure that even R.I.M wont be able to access the content. So governments used to controling ISPs may find that this a totally different ballgame as some would say.

 

[Shadow]

It amount to encroaching personal privacy. It sounds like wire tapping of our phones:
The reasons behind the motive to 'tightens control' over blackberry are summed up below
Note that "There are problems in the Gulf with terrorism, organized crime. There are all sorts of security problems".
"….It's really been in the wake of the al-Mabhouh thing that the talk has really translated into concrete action and some of these governments have really started to get very tough on RIM, the company behind BlackBerry[Hamas Commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was killed in a Dubai hotel last January.]"
"…..Indians, because the Indians say that the terrorists who attacked in Mumbai in 2008 used BlackBerries for their communications, and the Indian authorities could not listen in to what they were saying. I don't know if that's true, but that's what we hear"
The above summary came from Christian Caryl is a Senior Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology's Center for International Studies and a Contributing Editor to Foreign Policy magazine.

 

[Kiranga]

It amount to encroaching personal privacy. It sounds like wire tapping of our phones:
The reasons behind the motive to 'tightens control' over blackberry are summed up below
Note that "There are problems in the Gulf with terrorism, organized crime. There are all sorts of security problems".
"….It's really been in the wake of the al-Mabhouh thing that the talk has really translated into concrete action and some of these governments have really started to get very tough on RIM, the company behind BlackBerry[Hamas Commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was killed in a Dubai hotel last January.]"
"…..Indians, because the Indians say that the terrorists who attacked in Mumbai in 2008 used BlackBerries for their communications, and the Indian authorities could not listen in to what they were saying. I don't know if that's true, but that's what we hear"
The above summary came from Christian Caryl is a Senior Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology's Center for International Studies and a Contributing Editor to Foreign Policy magazine.

Legitimate cases zipo hatukatai.

Ndiyo maana nikasema wapewe access on "as need" basis, ad hoc. Si mnawaachia database zima wachaue "leo tunataka kumsikiliza nani" itakuwa noma.

 

[MchunguZI]

It amount to encroaching personal privacy. It sounds like wire tapping of our phones:..........

I agree with M.E countries based on the fact that when it is on security problems, especially those connected to terrorism, world countries don’t have universal tactics. I can say nobody cares about your privacy.

Kwa nini wahangaike ku decript mawasiliano ya kampuni ambayo wana madaraka nayo.

Central Europe sasa hivi ina airports zaidi ya tatu zenye security scanner. No privacy, no what.. The Us is even worse wao wanajaribia so called backscatter x-ray. Zote hizi zinaona ulichonacho including intimate body parts.

Hapa sisi nadhani hatujaelewa nini cha hatari labda kama mkuu mmoja atafanyiwa sabotage ktk uchaguzi ujao kwa kutumia B-berry.

 

[Da Womanizer]

Hebu ongeeni kiswahili basi ili wote tuelewe.

 

[kanda2]

Hebu ongeeni kiswahili basi ili wote tuelewe.

Ungeanza wewe kwa kubadilisha signature yako kwanza....

 

[Chupaku]

Kiranga na Mwanakijiji, naomba kuuliza sijaelewa.
Ina maana ukiwa na Blackberry yako, connected to Voda, Celtel or whatever, email uzisomazo kutoka mtandao, pamoja na sms haziwezi kusimwa na yoyote including mobile companies bila ruhusa ya RIM?
Haziwezi kusomwa unapokuwa na Blackberry services au hata kama hauna blackberry services?
Na je hapo ni kwa services zipi za simu, email sms au blackberry messenger tu?

 

[Yona F. Maro]

Ndugu zangu Saudi arabia ndio wako kwenye mazungumzo ili kampuni inayotengeneza Blackberry iweze kuweka server zao nchini humo kwa ajili ya kuhifadhi kumbukumbu zote za simu zilizopo nchini humo au kama mtu huyo anawasiliana na mwingine nchi za mbali lakini pamoja na hayo yote serikali ya saudi arabia inafanya utaratibu wa kurekebisha sheria zake za mawasiliano ili kuweza kukubalika na jumuiya ya wananchi wa nchi hiyo ili ziweze kutumika rasmi hii ni kwa ajili ya ulinzi na usalama wa nchi hiyo nchini indonesia nao nasikia wanampango huo inaonekana nchi nyingi zinaweza kufuata mkumbo huo lakini kwa kuzingatia sheria za mawasiliano za nchi zao na tamaduni zao pia .

Kwetu pia sheria kama hizo ziko njiani zitakazo chukua afrika mashariki yote au bara zima la afrika lakini kwa sasa tuna sheria ya epoca electronics and postal act , mengine yanaendelea kuja na kuimarisha usalama na mawasiliano ya watu wetu

 

[Bantugbro]

Ndugu zangu Saudi arabia ndio wako kwenye mazungumzo ili kampuni inayotengeneza Blackberry iweze kuweka server zao nchini humo kwa ajili ya kuhifadhi kumbukumbu zote za simu zilizopo nchini humo au kama mtu huyo anawasiliana na mwingine nchi za mbali lakini pamoja na hayo yote serikali ya saudi arabia inafanya utaratibu wa kurekebisha sheria zake za mawasiliano

Personally i see this as a big business opportunity to software developers and vendors, let it come:thumb: