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In recent weeks, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has declared
Blackberry handsets to be a ‘national security risk’ and
threatened to block web access, the sending of e-mails and
delivery of instant messages to other Blackberry handsets.
Saudi Arabia has also said it would prevent use of the
Blackberry-to-Blackberry instant messaging service.
Legitimate security concerns
The national
telecoms providers of both Gulf nations are unhappy with
their inability to monitor communications made on Blackberry
handsets. Data security has long been a key selling point
for the Blackberry, a fact which has contributed to it
becoming the smartphone of choice for millions of business
users. However, with all communication data being encrypted
and stored on servers hosted in Canada, the home of
manufacturers Research in Motion, several nations have been
expressing concern at RIM’s refusal to hand over the
encryption keys for monitoring purposes.
Some critics have labelled as repressive these threats to
ban Blackberry handsets but, as the debate intensified, even
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted there were
"legitimate security concerns" surrounding the encryption of
Blackberry data. At the same time, Mrs Clinton sought to
diffuse any tension pointing out that time was required to
analyse “the full the range of interests and issues at
stake”.
Monitoring of communications closer to home
Since the 9/11 attacks,
increased monitoring of communications has become
commonplace in most countries around the world and other
nations including India are also supporting the position
taken by the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
However, as we ponder the tools available in the fight
against international terrorism, there may also be an
important lesson to be drawn by company bosses. Whilst
communications continue to play such a vital role in our
day-to-day lives, how well do business owners understand the
uses to which email and instant messaging are being put
within their organisations?
Threats to your own business may fall short of harbouring
international terrorists, but they will certainly include some or all
of the following:
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