BlackBerry maker wins reprieve on India shutdown

31 Aug, 2010  |  Written by admin  |  under News
No Comments

Related Video


Related Interactive

A man tries to hold on to his umbrella as he walks past a Blackberry advertisement billboard in Mumbai August 30, 2010. Officials meet on Monday to decide whether to ban some of Research In Motion's BlackBerry services, a day before the deadline runs out for the firm to give security agencies access to its secure data. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

A man tries to hold on to his umbrella as he walks past a Blackberry advertisement billboard in Mumbai August 30, 2010. Officials meet on Monday to decide whether to ban some of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry services, a day before the deadline runs out for the firm to give security agencies access to its secure data.

Credit: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui


By Bappa Majumdar and Devidutta Tripathy

NEW DELHI |
Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:40pm EDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Research In Motion will give India access to secure BlackBerry data beginning September 1, a government source said on Monday, leading New Delhi to put off a decision on whether to shut down the smartphone.

Concerned about militants using the BlackBerry or Internet to plan attacks, India is also pushing RIM, Google and Skype to set up local servers to allow full monitoring of their services.

Shares of Canadian-based RIM rose after the Indian Interior Ministry said the company had offered several ways to allow authorities to monitor BlackBerry communications. The government said it would check their feasibility over the next 60 days.

New Delhi had threatened to shut down BlackBerry email services by Tuesday unless RIM provided a workable way for the government to monitor the data. India has said it wants the means to fully track and read BlackBerry communications.

Indian officials have also expressed concerns over security threats from Internet-based messaging and other services from providers such as Google and Skype.

The Indian government had set a August 31 deadline for RIM to come up with a method to allow email monitoring and avoid a shutdown in the world’s fastest-growing mobile phone market. On Monday, a source said RIM provided an interim solution.

"They have given some access, which we will operationalize from September 1," said the government source, referring to RIM.

"They will have to provide full access to all communications that go through India. They will have to set up a server in India," the source said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A RIM spokesman based in India said the company had no immediate comment, while a spokeswoman at Google said the company was unable to comment as it had had no communication from the government.

Skype said it had also not received any directive from authorities in India.

BLACKBERRY’S REPUTATION

BlackBerry’s reputation is built on its system security and a compromise under pressure from governments could damage the device’s popularity with business professionals and politicians.

Apple Inc and Nokia, RIM’s two biggest smartphone rivals, may have the most to gain if India blocks BlackBerry services. Nokia said on Monday it will host an email server in India from November 5.

India is keen to retain its position as one of the world’s fastest-growing information-technology nations, and a BlackBerry ban would jeopardize its status. A shutdown would also limit the efficiency and productivity of Indian businesses that rely on the smartphone.

"It is a huge hassle, not only for the government itself, which uses the RIM service," said Avian Securities analyst Matthew Thornton.

"It’s not easy to take out all of your servers, put in new servers, take out all the different devices you have in the field, put in new devices. It’s a big hassle and a cost," he said.

RIM uses powerful codes to encrypt email messages as they travel between a BlackBerry and a computer known as a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) that is designed to secure those emails.

RIM has said BlackBerry security is based on a system where the customers create their own key and the company neither has a master key nor any "back door" to allow RIM or any third party to gain access to crucial corporate data.

In addition to India, several other countries, most of them in the Middle East, have raised concerns that the BlackBerry could be used to aid terrorism or peddle pornography.

Saudi Arabia, fretful over services such as online pornography, has reached a deal with RIM on access to the BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service, a consumer product that operates outside of the secure corporate domain. India has also reached a deal until November on Messenger service, according to government sources.

Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have raised similar concerns, with the UAE setting an October 11 deadline for RIM.

Analysts see no easy fix to the standoff as RIM says it has no way of intercepting the data that countries want to access. RIM has denied media reports that say it provided unique wireless services or access to any one country.

A shutdown would affect about 1 million users in India out of a total 41 million BlackBerry users worldwide, allowing them to use the devices only for calls and Internet browsing.

RIM’s stock was up 54 cents, or 1.2 percent, at $46.53 on Nasdaq, and up 80 Canadian cents, or 1.8 percent, at C$49.15 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday afternoon.

(Writing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Frank McGurty; additional reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; editing by Surojit Gupta, Jui Chakravorty, Michael Roddy, Peter Galloway and Rob Wilson)

original content on reuters

Jordanian youths walk past the Haroon Internet Cafe in Irbid. …

25 Aug, 2010  |  Written by Brad Selers  |  under Photo
No Comments

photo(AFP/File) - Jordanian youths walk past the Haroon Internet Cafe in Irbid. Jordanian journalists are up in arms after the government on August 3 passed a temporary law on cyber crimes seen by many as a way of controlling local news websites.(AFP/File/Jamal Nasrallah)


India sees solution on BlackBerry emails next week: source

21 Aug, 2010  |  Written by Brad Selers  |  under News
No Comments


A man carries empty water containers as he walks past a Blackberry billboard in New Delhi August 12, 2010. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

A man carries empty water containers as he walks past a Blackberry billboard in New Delhi August 12, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Adnan Abidi


NEW DELHI |
Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:06am EDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion may provide some solution next week to help Indian security agencies access corporate email by obtaining encrypted data in readable format, a government source said on Friday.

Research In Motion (RIM) faces an August 31 deadline to give Indian authorities the means to track and read BlackBerry Enterprise email and its separate BlackBerry Messenger service.

The government, concerned about the potential for militants to use the secure BlackBerry network to carry out attacks, has vowed to shut the services if RIM fails to comply, cutting it out of one of the world’s fastest-growing telecoms market.

An RIM technical team in New Delhi has been working with the department of telecoms and security agencies to find a way out.

"We are expecting they will come up with some solution for Enterprise mail next week," the source said. He did not want to be named as RIM’s discussions with the government are not public.

India said this week that it would allow the messenger service to continue beyond the deadline as it had been assured access to the services, but could shut down the secure email service if access is not given by then.

India is one of a number of countries putting pressure on RIM, which has built the reputation of the BlackBerry, popular with business professionals and politicians, around confidentiality.

Government officials have said RIM has assured manual access to BlackBerry instant messenger by September 1, and automated access by year-end.

(Reporting by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

original content on reuters

UAE, Blackberry may soon resolve spat: diplomats

18 Aug, 2010  |  Written by admin  |  under News
No Comments


A Blackberry smartphone is displayed in this August 12, 2010 illustrative photo taken in Hong Kong. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

A Blackberry smartphone is displayed in this August 12, 2010 illustrative photo taken in Hong Kong.

Credit: Reuters/Bobby Yip


ABU DHABI |
Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:14am EDT

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Talks between the United Arab Emirates and Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM) may soon resolve a spat over BlackBerry security, two UAE diplomats said on Tuesday.

The UAE, where RIM has 500,000 users, has said it would suspend BlackBerry Messenger, email and Web browser services from October 11 until the government could get access to encrypted messages.

"Talks are progressing well and hopefully we will be able to reach a conclusion in the near future," Yousef Al Otaiba, the Gulf state’s ambassador to the United States, told reporters after a meeting of UAE ambassadors gathered in Abu Dhabi.

Asked whether the UAE could secure a deal similar to what Saudi Arabia got from RIM, Otaiba said each country has its own requirements and regulatory frameworks.

"We may not get the same deal as others," he said.

"Talks are going on and we are hopeful of a quick solution," said another UAE diplomat, asking not to be named.

RIM has agreed to hand over user codes that would let Saudi authorities monitor its BlackBerry Messenger, as it seeks to stop the kingdom from silencing the service, a source close to the talks said last week.

India, which has also threatened to block some BlackBerry services over security worries, has formally asked mobile operators to ensure a monitoring system for the smartphone’s services by August 31.

India is the latest country to step up pressure on RIM, which has built the BlackBerry’s reputation around confidentiality.

RIM has assured India of limited access to BlackBerry instant messages by September 1, and promised talks this week on monitoring its more secure corporate email, an Indian government source said on Monday.

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; editing by Firouz Sedarat and Hans Peters)

original content on reuters

Plugging the WikiLeak: What can the government do? (AP)

7 Aug, 2010  |  Written by Brad Selers  |  under News
No Comments

WASHINGTON – An online whistle-blower’s threat to release more classified Pentagon and State Department documents is raising difficult questions of what the government can or would do, legally, technically or even militarily to stop it.

Constrained by the global reach of the Internet, sophisticated encryption software and the domestic legal system, the answer seems to be: Not much.

But if the U.S. government believes that the release of classified documents WikiLeaks is preparing to disclose will threaten national security or put lives at risk, cyber and legal experts say the options could expand to include cyber strikes to take down the WikiLeaks website and destroy its files or covert operations to steal or disable the files.

It all sounds, at times, like a spy movie, where the possibilities extend as far as the imagination can reach. But most outsiders agree that reality is probably far less dramatic.

At the center of the drama was the posting last week of a massive 1.4 gigabyte mystery file named "Insurance" on the WikiLeaks website.

The "Insurance" file is encrypted, nearly impossible to open until WikiLeaks provides the passwords. But experts suggest that if anyone can crack it — it would be the National Security Agency.

That file, coupled with WikiLeaks’ release of more than 77,000 secret military documents last month, prompted the Pentagon to demand that the website’s editor-in-chief, Julian Assange, cancel any new document dumps and pull back the Afghan war data he already posted.

WikiLeaks slammed the demand as an obnoxious threat, and Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell declined to detail what, if any, actions the Defense Department may be ready to take.

Few people involved, for the Pentagon and other agencies, would talk openly about what the Pentagon or the clandestine NSA could or would do to stop the expected document dump. It is not even clear if U.S. officials actually know what WikiLeaks has.

"Do we believe that WikiLeaks has additional cables? We do," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "Do we believe that those cables are classified? We do. And are they State Department cables? Yes."

Officials say the data may also include up to 15,000 military documents related to the Afghanistan war that were not made public in the initial release.

Daniel Schmitt, a WikiLeaks spokesman in Berlin, said Saturday the new batch of classified documents the website is preparing to release will contribute to the public’s understanding of the war.

"Hopefully with this understanding, public scrutiny will then influence governments to develop better politics," he told The Associated Press.

Schmitt denied that the disclosure of the documents is a threat to U.S. security interests.

Assuming the documents contain highly sensitive information that threatens national security, the U.S. must weigh a number of options, experts say.

First, from a legal standpoint, there is probably little the U.S. government can do to stop WikiLeaks from posting the files.

It is against federal law to knowingly and willfully disclose or transmit classified information. But Assange, an Australian who has no permanent address and travels frequently, is not a U.S. citizen.

Since Assange is a foreign citizen living in a foreign country, it’s not clear that U.S. law would apply, said Marc Zwillinger, a Washington lawyer and former federal cyber crimes prosecutor. He said prosecutors would have to figure out what crime to charge Assange with, and then face the daunting task of trying to indict him or persuade other authorities to extradite him.

It would be equally difficult, Zwillinger said, to effectively use an injunction to prevent access to the data.

"Could the U.S. get an injunction to force U.S. Internet providers to block traffic to and from WikiLeaks such that people couldn’t access the website?" Zwillinger said. "It’s an irrelevant question. There would be thousands of paths to get to it. So it wouldn’t really stop people from getting to the site. They would be pushing the legal envelope without any real benefit."

Legal questions aside, the encrypted file conjures visions of secret codebreakers hunched over their laptops, tearing open secret, protected files in seconds with a few keystrokes.

Reality is not that simple. It appears WikiLeaks used state-of-the-art software requiring a sophisticated electronic sequence of numbers, called a 256-bit key, to open them.

The main way to break such an encrypted file is by what’s called a "brute force attack," which means trying every possible key, or password, said Herbert Lin, a senior computer science and cryptology expert at the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences.

Unlike a regular six- or eight-character password that most people use every day, a 256-bit key would equal a 40 to 50 character password, he said.

If it takes 0.1 nanosecond to test one possible key and you had 100 billion computers to test the possible number variations, "it would take this massive array of computers 10 to the 56th power seconds — the number 1, followed by 56 zeros" to plow through all the possibilities, said Lin.

How long is that?

"The age of the universe is 10 to the 17th power seconds," explained Lin. "We will wait a long time for the U.S. government or anyone else to decrypt that file by brute force."

Could the NSA, which is known for its supercomputing and massive electronic eavesdropping abilities abroad, crack such an impregnable code?

It depends on how much time and effort they want to put into it, said James Bamford, who has written two books on the NSA.

The NSA has the largest collection of supercomputers in the world. And officials have known for some time that WikiLeaks has classified files in its possession.

The agency, he speculated, has probably been looking for a vulnerability or gap in the code, or a backdoor into the commercial encryption program protecting the file.

At the more extreme end, the NSA, the Pentagon and other U.S. government agencies — including the newly created Cyber Command — have probably reviewed options for using a cyber attack against the website, which could disrupt networks, files, electricity, and so on.

"This is the kind of thing that they are geared for," said Bamford, "since this is the type of thing a terrorist organization might have — a website that has damaging information on it. They would want to break into it, see what’s there and then try to destroy it."

The vast nature of the Internet, however, makes it essentially impossible to stop something, or take it down, once it has gone out over multiple servers.

In the end, U.S. officials will have to weigh whether a more aggressive response is worth the public outrage it would likely bring. Most experts predict that, despite the uproar, the government will probably do little other than bluster, and the documents will come out anyway.

"Once you start messing with the Internet, taking things down, and going to the maximum extent to hide everything from coming out, it doesn’t necessarily serve your purpose," said Bamford. "It makes the story bigger than it would have been had the documents been released in the first place."

"If, in the end, the goal is to decrease the damage, you have to wonder whether pouring fuel on the fire is a reasonable solution," he said.

___

AP National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://www.wikileaks.org/

Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook

original content on yahoo

Related Posts with Thumbnails

« Older Entries

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes