Whats So Worrisome About A BlackBerry?
BlackBerry addicts may not be able to get their fix the next time they visit the United Arab Emirates. Telecom regulators in the emirates say they will shut down data service for the popular smart phone starting in October — and that includes service for BlackBerrys brought in by foreigners. UAE officials don’t like the fact that the smart phones are too hard to spy on. BlackBerrys make governments nervous. That’s because the e-mails and instant messages they send are encrypted — using an encryption system controlled by Research in Motion, the Canadian company that makes BlackBerrys. That makes it next to impossible for security agencies to spy on those messages without RIM’s cooperation. And, apparently, officials in the UAE don’t think they’re getting that cooperation. Last year, the UAE tried to tap into BlackBerry data. It was a bust, according to Chris Soghoian, an expert in privacy and technology with Indiana University. “They were caught ham-fistedly trying to install spyware on
