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Blackberry and security

Off late we have been seeing a lot of comments and brickmanship from Governments about how a blackberry needs to shut down its services in the the name of security. So why is this a problem. As it is known, blackbery uses encryption when it sends out mails. This is done with the help of a Blackbery Enterprise Server (BES). The idea behind it is simple. When you install a BES, you create a key. This key is used when you add up your Blackberries when they are added to the System. A certificate is downloaded from the server based on the seed provided by BES. A typical Assymetric Key Algorithm. Is this the only place where mails can be exchanged securely. Is there not other options for any would be misuse of encryption technologies. Would you ban VPN clients on the blackberries because somebody can use the services. 

In the name of security it is becoming very easy for many to arm twist organizations to fall in line. Why would a multinational organization using blackberry services allow its data to be intercepted? Would the diplomatic core which uses BB services allow for this happen? There are many more scenarios wherein it becomes difficult to maintain your privacy. SMS can be monitored, so are the calls made . Every flow cannot be monitored effectively and what are the triggers to monitor for?

 

The evolution of newer technologies that offer privacy. For example, even if I use a mailing system but end up using PGP to encrypt and sign my documents, what is that an central intelligence organization be able to do to decrypt it?

 

The argument goes like this, most likely since The US and other European countries allow BB to be used, most likely it is true that they have the key to decrypt these communications. In this case, how is it that they manage to do this. Most likely the BES root certificate may be a function of the root certificate available with BB. If that is the case, letting an organization options to have access to the root would make any traffic over the BB network susceptible to eavesdropping.

 

What is the probable BB response. To ensure that they provide the services in the same way as they do and assuming that they are to share a common root with the authorities, this would be possible if you are to segregate the data flow based on the country of origin? But then how do you handle multinational corporations?

 

Just wondering the different ways this can be achieved? Do you have any idea why how this works? If do drop me a comment.
 

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