On January 6th reports of Symantec (makers of Norton Anitvirus) being hacked surfaced. The group of hackers behind the attack behind the attack were from India. In a statement issued by a member from the Lords of Dharamraja group (badass name!), the guys said:
As of now we start sharing with all our brothers and followers information from the Indian Militaty (sic) Intelligence servers, so far we have discovered within the Indian Spy Programme (sic) source codes of a dozen software companies which have signed agreements with Indian TANCS programme (sic) and CBI
Ignoring the typing error, gaining access to Indian Military’s Intelligence servers is pretty damning for the agency. The hack got covered since the hackers claimed to have acces to Norton’s source code. Earlier today I came across scans of a set of documents that are internal communications between the Indian Military. The documents claim the existence of a system known as RINOA SUR. While I did not find what SUR stands for but RINOA is RIM, NOkia and Apple. And this is where things start to get very interesting, according to the set of documents, the RINOA SUR platform was used to spy on the USCC—the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Let’s take a moment for that to digest. Here’s an image from the documents underlining the relevant part:
The documents contain snippets of emails sent by members of the USCC. Apparently, RINOA SUR platform has been declared a success and the Indian Navy has shown interest in the same. The leaked military documents suggest, RINOA were arm twisted into providing backdoor access in exchange for operating in India:
While the Indian government recently gave the nation’s premiere spy agency—RAW—permission to access any citizen’s electronic communication, the Department of Telecommunications has reached out to the Interpol for help in decrypting communication via services like RIM’s BlackBerry.
RIM on Thursday released its response to an open letter published exclusively by BGR. The letter, which was written by a senior RIM executive, pleads with the company’s upper management to make some drastic changes if it is to regain the mind share and market share it has lost in recent years. After questioning the authenticity of the letter — and we assure you, it is indeed genuine and its author has been vetted — RIM said the company is “fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.” The response goes on to take an extremely defensive stance, listing various reasons that RIM is still in a strong position. The company also says its management is taking its current challenges seriously during this transitional period. “The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM’s net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world,” the response concludes. RIM’s statement can be read below in its entirety.
An “Open Letter” to RIM’s senior management was published anonymously on the web today and it was attributed to an unnamed person described as a ‘high level employee”. It is obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary and it is particularly difficult to believe that a “high level employee” in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.
RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition. Although this transition has taken longer than anticipated, there is much excitement and optimism within the company about the new products that are lined up for the coming months. There is a fundamental business reality however that following an extended period of hyper growth (during which RIM nearly quadrupled in size over the past 5 years alone), it has become necessary for the company to streamline its operations in order to allow it to grow its business profitably while pursuing newer strategic opportunities. Again, RIM’s management team takes these challenges seriously and is actively addressing the situation. The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM’s net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world.
There’s no question Research In Motion is in the midst of a major transitional period. The company is planning to launch a brand new product line based on a brand new operating system within the next 12 months, and even though the first device born out of RIM’s new QNX OS was impressive in some ways, it was incomplete. There still is a chance for RIM to deliver some really interesting competitive products, but time is quickly running out, as we have written time and time again. The thing is, RIM has always been a company controlled by two people — Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. For all the things that have worked, they have missed the boat countless times and we’re now seeing the results.
We have received an open letter to Mike and Jim from a high-level RIM employee (whose identity we have verified), and in an amazingly honest and passionate plea, this letter gives fascinating insights into what RIM must fix, and fast. RIM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Read the open letter in its entirety after the break.
While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone — the sentiment is widespread and it includes people within your own teams.
Mike and Jim, please take the time to really absorb and digest the content of this letter because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base. You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects.
Before I get into the meat of the matter, I will say I am not part of a large group of bitter employees wishing to embarrass us. Rather, I believe these points need to be heard and I desperately want RIM to regain its position as a successful industry leader. Our carriers, distributors, alliance partners, enterprise customers, and our loyal end users all want the same thing… for BlackBerry to once again be leading the pack.
We are in the middle of major “transition” and things have never been more chaotic. Almost every project is falling further and further behind schedule at a time when we absolutely must deliver great, solid products on time. We urge you to make bold decisions about our organisational structure, about our culture and most importantly our products.
While we anxiously wait to see the details of the streamlining plan, here are some suggestions:
1) Focus on the End User experience
Let’s obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren’t hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work. Android has a major weakness — it will always lack the simplicity and elegance that comes with end-to-end device software, middleware and hardware control. We really have a great opportunity to build something new and “uniquely BlackBerry” with the QNX platform.
Let’s start an internal innovation revival with teams focused on what users will love instead of chasing “feature parity” and feature differentiation for no good reason (Adobe Flash being a major example). When was the last time we pushed out a significant new experience or feature that wasn’t already on other platforms?
Rather than constantly mocking iPhone and Android, we should encourage key decision makers across the board to use these products as their primary device for a week or so at a time — yes, on Exchange! This way we can understand why our users are switching and get inspiration as to how we can build our next-gen products even better! It’s incomprehensible that our top software engineers and executives aren’t using or deeply familiar with our competitor’s products.
I’m going to say what everyone is thinking… We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren’t talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind. We are demotivated. Just look at who our major competitors are: Apple, Google & Microsoft. These are three of the biggest and most talented software companies on the planet. Then take a look at our software leadership teams in terms of what they have delivered and their past experience prior to RIM… It says everything.
3) Cut projects to the bone.
There is a serious need to consolidate our focus to just a handful of projects. Period.
We need to be disciplined here. We can’t afford any more initiatives based on carrier requests to squeeze out slightly more volume. Again, back to point #1, focus on the end users. They are the ones making both consumer & enterprise purchase decisions.
Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.
On that note, we simply must stop shipping incomplete products that aren’t ready for the end user. It is hurting our brand tremendously. It takes guts to not allow a product to launch that may be 90% ready with a quarter end in sight, but it will pay off in the long term.
Look at Apple in 1997 for tips here. I really want you to watch this video because it has never been more relevant. It is our friend Steve Jobs in 97 and it may as well be you speaking to RIM employees and partners today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LEXae1j6EY
4) Developers, not Carriers can now make or break us
We urgently need to invest like we never have before in becoming developer friendly. The return will be worth every cent. There is no polite way to say this, but it’s true — BlackBerry smartphone apps suck. Even PlayBook, with all its glorious power, looks like a Fisher Price toy with its Adobe AIR/Flash apps.
Developing for BlackBerry is painful, and despite what you’ve been told, things haven’t really changed that much since Jamie Murai’s letter. Our SDK / development platform is like a rundown 1990′s Ford Explorer. Then there’s Apple, which has a shiny new BMW M3… just such a pleasure to drive. Developers want and need quality tools.
If we create great tools, we will see great work. Offer shit tools and we shouldn’t be surprised when we see shit apps.
The truth is, no one in RIM dares to tell management how bad our tools still are. Even our closest dev partners do their best to say it politely, but they will never bite the hand that feeds them. The solution? Recruit serious talent, buy SDK/API specialist companies, throw a truckload of money at it… Let’s do whatever it takes, and quickly!
5) Need for serious marketing punch to create end user desire
25 million iPad users don’t care that it doesn’t have Flash or true multitasking, so why make that a focus in our campaigns? I’ll answer that for you: it’s because that’s all that differentiates our products and its lazy marketing. I’ve never seen someone buy product B because it has something product A doesn’t have. People buy product B because they want and lust after product B.
Also an important note regarding our marketing: a product’s technical superiority does not equal desire, and therefore sales… How many Linux laptops are getting sold? How did Betamax go? My mother wants an iPad and iPhone because it is simple and appeals to her. Powerful multitasking doesn’t.
BlackBerry Messenger has been our standout, yet we wasted our marketing on strange stories from a barber shop to a horse wrangler. I promise you, this did nothing to help us in the mind of the average consumer.
We need an inventive and engaging campaign that focuses on what we are about. People buy into a brand / product not just because of features, but because of what it stands for and what it delivers to them. People don’t buy “what you do,” people buy “why you do it.” Take 3 minutes to watch the this video starting from the 2min mark:
6) No Accountability – Canadians are too nice
RIM has a lot of people who underperform but still stay in their roles. No one is accountable. Where is the guy responsible for the 9530 software? Still with us, still running some important software initiative. We will never achieve excellence with this culture. Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn’t mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role. It’s time to change the culture to deliver or move on and get out. We have far too many people in critical roles that fit this description. I can hear the cheers of my fellow employees now.
7) The press and analysts are pissing you off. Don’t snap. Now is the time for humility with a dash of paranoia.
The public’s questions about dual-CEOs are warranted. The partnership is not broken, but on the ground level, it is not efficient. Maybe we need our Eric Schmidt reign period.
Yes, four years ago we beat Microsoft when everyone said Windows Mobile with Direct Push in Exchange would kill us. It didn’t… in fact we grew stronger.
However, overconfidence clouds good decision-making. We missed not boldly reacting to the threat of iPhone when we saw it in January over four years ago. We laughed and said they are trying to put a computer on a phone, that it won’t work. We should have made the QNX-like transition then. We are now 3-4 years too late. That is the painful truth… it was a major strategic oversight and we know who is responsible.
Jim, in referring to our current transition recently said: “No other technology company other than Apple has successfully transitioned their platform. It’s almost never done, and it’s way harder than you realize. This transition is where tech companies go to die.”
To avoid this death, perhaps it is time to seriously consider a new, fresh thinking, experienced CEO. There is no shame in no longer being a CEO. Mike, you could focus on innovation. Jim, you could focus on our carriers/customers… They are our lifeblood.
8) Democratise. Engage and interact with your employees — please!
Reach out to all employees asking them on how we can make RIM better. Encourage input from ground-level teams—without repercussions—to seek out honest feedback and really absorb it.
Lastly, we’re all reading the news and many are extremely nervous, especially when we see people get fired. We need an injection of confidence: share your strategy and ask us for support. The headhunters have already started circling and we are at risk of losing our best people.
Now would be a great time to internally re-brand and re-energize the workplace. For example, rename the company to just “BlackBerry” to signify our new focus on one QNX product line. We should also address issues surrounding making RIM an enjoyable workplace. Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government workplaces.
The timing is perfect to seriously evaluate at our position and make these major changes. We can do it!
The BlackBerry Torch isn't setting the smartphone world ablaze.Research In Motion and AT&T sold no more than 150,000 of the devices over the weekend, according to estimates by RBC Capital Markets and Stifel Nicolaus analysts. By comparison, Apple's iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million units in its first weekend of sales.
The Torch, a touch-screen smartphone with a slide-out keyboard, went on sale Thursday for $199 with a new two-year contract, but Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500) immediately slashed the price of the Torch in half to $100 (see correction below). That's the same price Amazon is offering on the three-month old BlackBerry Bold 9650.
Wirefly, LetsTalk.com and other mobile phone outlets also are selling the Torch at a much steeper discount than other phones that just launched. For example, the Motorola Droid 2 (which also launched Thursday) goes for $150 on Amazon and Wirefly, while the back-ordered Droid X sells for $180 on each site. Each carries a list price of $199, just like the Torch. RIM hailed the BlackBerry Torch as the "best BlackBerry ever" earlier this month, and it's unquestionably the company's most advanced smartphone. But AT&T (T, Fortune 500), the phone's exclusive carrier, also offers Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone. At the same $199 price point and the same data charges, customers would really have to love the new BlackBerry operating system and the Torch's pull-out keyboard to choose a Torch over an iPhone.Some analysts weren't surprised by Amazon's price chop and predicted that AT&T (T, Fortune 500) would likely follow suit."The device will ultimately have to sell in the marketplace side-by-side with Apple's iPhone," Sanjiv Wadhwani, analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, said in a research note. "To sustain U.S. sell-through momentum into the November quarter, we believe the price of $199 on contract will have to fall." RIM declined to comment. "The Torch is a breakthrough device and we think businesses and consumers will love it," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman at AT&T.The first BlackBerry to run RIM's modernized operating system, BlackBerry OS 6, the Torch offers a full Web browser, as well as other features common on most of today's smartphones like social networking integration, universal search and multiple home screens. It includes a 5 megapixel camera, built-in GPS, and video recording at up to 640x480 resolution. That didn't appear to be enough to wow too many customers. Wadhwani said that Torch buyers are mostly BlackBerry loyalists, smartphone customers who use e-mail more than any other application, and physical keyboard lovers. Though RIM said it is working hard to improve its app store, its offerings are still very slim compared to the iPhone or Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) Android phones."The new device will be more competitive in retaining at-risk enterprise customers and driving incremental opportunities in the rapidly expanding consumer market," he said. That's not exactly the "game changer" language that RIM and AT&T spouted a few weeks ago.BlackBerry went through a similar ordeal with Verizon Wireless' BlackBerry Storm and subsequent Storm 2. The Storm was RIM's first try at a touch-screen, but without a physical keyboard, it never appealed to RIM's core customers and failed to live up to the "iPhone killer" hype.Shares of RIM (RIMM) fell more than 1% on Tuesday.Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Amazon had cut the price of the Torch. The Torch has sold at $100 on Amazon since its launch last Thursday.
India targets Skype and Google in its bid to monitor data traffic
As Research In Motion faces an increasingly public dispute with several countries over the ability to monitor communication on its BlackBerry devices, virtually all other major technology communications companies have remained silent on the issue. That may soon change: RIM is likely just the first test case.
The government of India indicated yesterday that RIM isn't the only company from which it will demand greater monitoring access. State authorities listed Internet phone company Skype SA and Google Inc., provider of the wildly popular Gmail service, as targets.
The move signals that the issue of monitoring data traffic goes far beyond RIM's encrypted BlackBerrys – and probably has more to do with a looming collision between the advance of digital communication and the security demands of the state than with the Ontario company's technology.
Colin Gillis, senior technology analyst with New York-based BGC Financial, said companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. may also face a growing risk of having to make accessible to governments more of the customer data that flows through their networks. Both companies – like Google and many other major tech firms – provide cloud computing services, often in the form of e-mail or data storage.
A Google spokeswoman said she could not comment on the India situation. A Skype spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
India's latest move comes as RIM seeks to reassure its large corporate customers of the BlackBerry's security. Citing two unnamed sources, Bloomberg reported that the company has held at least one conference call in the past week with clients including Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase – much of the foreign government's requests for access have focused on RIM's enterprise BlackBerry service, which caters predominantly to businesses.
The numerous demands made by various governments to access BlackBerry data – which began early this month with the United Arab Emirates and has since included Saudi Arabia and India, among others – has forced RIM into the difficult position of trying to assuage both state security agencies and major corporate clients.
Two security experts who spoke to The Globe and Mail in the past week said it is understood that RIM has arrangements with security agencies in the United States and Canada, and that those agencies can readily monitor BlackBerry communication. However, RIM has repeatedly said it does not make special arrangements with individual countries, and that the solutions it provides to any one of the 175 nations in which it operates, it provides to all.
Earlier this week, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said in a press briefing that State Department officials met with RIM and that the company indicated that it may be able to reach agreements with the various governments.
“[RIM's] perspective was that they believe that there are, again, broadly speaking, solutions available that, on a country-by-country-by-country basis, can satisfactorily address and balance the regulatory security and access issues that are at stake,” Mr. Crowley said, according to a press briefing transcript.
The dispute that began with the UAE's ultimatum to RIM – that it provide greater access to BlackBerry data or risk seeing some of its services shut down – has increasingly become as much about politics as public safety.
The U.S. State Department, which was quick to express its “disappointment” at the UAE's move, has since taken a decidedly more nuanced view, saying the situation between RIM and various countries “encompasses a very complex set of technical and policy issues.”
Mr. Gillis said the issue of data monitoring is certainly not unique to foreign jurisdictions.
“It's not only other countries,” he said. “There's also the Patriot Act issues in the U.S.
“The privacy issue has been around for a long time, but it does seem to be heating up.”
From Washington to Silicon Valley and north of the border in Canada (where RIM is based), there is a worthy and lively discussion about the protection of democracy and free speech. At the heart of the debate is why encrypted messages need to be protected and where RIM secures its customers data.
As the host and correspondent for "Marketplace Middle East," I shuttle in and out of the region. One of the most open economies and home to the largest port, the UAE, has taken what many view as a "closed" position by saying it needs greater access to data for security purposes. But like the Middle East itself, this issue is more complex.
A government source familiar with the issue in the UAE told CNN this is a "sovereignty issue, not just a security issue." The position is, UAE regulatory laws have been on the books for nearly three years and those operating in the country should adhere to the national laws where they choose to do business, said the source who asked not to be named because of the sensitivities of the negotiations.
UAE officials have been talking with RIM for nearly three years in search of a solution. The only thing that has changed now is that a firm deadline to find a compromise has been fixed -- October 11. If there's no deal, BlackBerry services, including e-mail and web-browsing will be suspended.
A solution for Abu Dhabi means that RIM needs to put its servers on UAE soil, or in this case, sand. "BlackBerry is finished. It's done," said the source, if servers are not installed.
A second government source, who also asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the talks, told me, "other solutions will be found." As of now, RIM's encrypted data is delivered through secure servers at its own data centers, based mostly in Canada.
For its part, RIM says they "respect both the regulatory requirements of governments and the security and privacy needs of corporations and consumers."
The government is working on a Plan B with telecom operators and device manufacturers to enhance their offerings in a post-October 11 scenario.
The position from the outside seems to be extreme, but for those who live or travel for business and news coverage in the region this hard line on information passing is commonplace.
The UAE is very security conscious. Big Brother is not far away. At all ports of entry, for example, the government has installed iris scanners to verify those who have work visas.
It's also worth looking at a map to see why the UAE and others are on tenterhooks. This is a rough neighborhood when it comes to wars, conflicts and spymasters.
Right across the Persian Gulf and the narrower Straits of Hormuz is Iran. Last week, a Japanese tanker carrying 270,000 tons of crude was hit by a still-unknown source off the coast of Abu Dhabi.
While there was no spill, initially UAE port officials downplayed the event saying it was caused by a wave generated by an earthquake in Iran. But upon further examination, port officials concluded that it was an attack and a group with suspected links to Al Qaeda is now trying to take credit for the incident.
In the broader discussion about security, G-8 and OECD officials have been leaning on regional governments, and the UAE in particular, to crack down on human trafficking, drug smuggling and money laundering. Securing data is what one of the sources described as an "essential tool" in that effort. Translation for critics: don't ask us to take action and then tell us how to do it.
The UAE has drawn its "line in the sand" with RIM, but others may be ready to do the same. Saudi Arabia has called a halt of the BlackBerry service and I am told four other countries in the Middle East have talked to UAE officials to revise their position. What started as a spat in one Gulf market could be potentially big much bigger.
Bahrain's Sheik Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa told The Associated Press the handheld devices raise legitimate concerns, but that his nation has decided that banning some of the phones' features is "not a way of dealing with it."
Bahrain's foreign minister said Sunday the country has no plans to follow its Persian Gulf neighbors in banning some BlackBerry services because security fears do not outweigh the technological benefits.
His comments come as device maker Research in Motion Ltd. is facing opposition by a number of countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf, to the way its encrypted e-mail and messenger services are managed.
Bahrain's Sheik Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa told The Associated Press the handheld devices raise legitimate concerns, but that his nation has decided that banning some of the phones' features is "not a way of dealing with it."
"We're not saying there is no security concern," Sheik Khaled said in an interview. But, he added: "There are many other ways for the criminals or terrorists to communicate, so we decided we might as well live it."
Canadian-based RIM is negotiating with Saudi authorities to avoid a ban on messaging services on the devices, while neighboring UAE is planning an even more sweeping crackdown on the data services starting in October.
Both countries have cited security concerns. Critics contend that the countries, which maintain tight controls on the media, are also motivated by a desire to monitor users' speech and political activity.
Sheik Khaled said Bahrain fully respected the decisions taken by other Gulf states regarding the devices, and declined to comment on the motivation behind their moves.
However, he said his country — a small island kingdom that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet — does not see a need for a ban on BlackBerry messaging or other data services for now despite the security concerns.
"It's not a way of dealing with it. We will really kind of lose a lot of communication freedom just for the sake of dealing with one matter," he said.
Local media in Bahrain have reported that authorities are cracking down on the spread of some types of news and information via BlackBerry.
Sheik Khaled acknowledged there were "some concerns raised" but said sharing information using the devices remains legal. Authorities were aiming instead to warn users against spreading slanderous and libelous information, he said.
The tech-savvy foreign minister posted a statement to his Twitter account Thursday that he said came from the country's crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. In it, he quoted Sheik Salman offering assurances no ban on messaging was planned, saying a decision to halt the service would be "ignorant, short sighted and unenforceable."
Late Saturday, Saudi Arabia's telecom regulator said it was giving mobile operators more time to finalize a deal to allow BlackBerry messaging to continue, staving off a ban of the service in the Arab world's largest economy.
The oil-rich kingdom's Communications and Information Technology Commission said companies had 48 hours ending Monday to test a system that would allow them to avert a ban.
"Considering the efforts made by mobile phone service providers toward meeting CITC's organizational requirements and fulfilling license conditions, they were given an additional grace period of 48 hours, which ends on Monday, in order to test the proposed solutions," the regulator said in a brief statement. No details were provided.
Saudi officials told The Associated Press that RIM has reached a preliminary agreement with Saudi regulators that would allow the government some access to users' data, and that authorities were examining how such a system might be implemented.
They say the plan involves placing a BlackBerry server inside Saudi Arabia, which already has strong controls on the Internet to block morally offensive and political content and maintains strict controls on freedom of expression.
RIM has declined to comment on the state of negotiations. Saudi Arabia's three mobile operators couldn't be reached.
A deal that allows Saudi officials to access user data in the conservative Islamic country could set a new precedent for how technology companies and governments interact around the world.
A number of countries say they see BlackBerry devices as a security threat because encrypted information sent on them is difficult, if not impossible, for local governments to monitor when it doesn't pass through domestic servers.
The UAE has said it plans to block BlackBerry e-mail, Web browsing and messaging services starting in October. India, Indonesia and Lebanon have also raised concerns about the devices.
Simon Simonian, a telecoms analyst at Dubai-based investment bank Shuaa Capital, said the way Saudi Arabia solves its impasse with RIM could provide a model for other countries eyeing BlackBerry crackdowns.
"Everybody will be closely monitoring the developments in Saudi Arabia to see if it could set an example and become a template for resolution in the UAE or other countries," he said.
A salesman hangs a poster advertising BlackBerry in New Delhi, India, where the government wants access to data from the phones.
This week, news out of the Middle East saw BlackBerry, the handheld communication device of choice in the corporate world, assailed on multiple fronts over a security problem.
The problem? It's too secure.
Governments in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said they plan to ban BlackBerry use, at least in part, unless they're able to view messages for security reasons. India and Indonesia are reportedly considering similar measures.
The controversy has raised questions about what happens to data from smartphones and whether users should be concerned about how secure that data is.
The answers can sometimes be tricky, and differ from country to country and phone to phone. So, we've rounded up some answers to help make sense of it all.
What do governments not like about BlackBerry's security?
BlackBerrymaker Research In Motion (RIM) touts security as one of the phone's major selling points to its largely professional customer base.
That's mainly done in two ways -- ways that haven't made countries like Saudi Arabia and the Emirates happy.
The first line of defense is encryption -- a system that, in very basic terms, scrambles the text of messages, then unscrambles them when they reach their destination.
Systems like BlackBerry's, and those of other smartphone vendors aiming at corporate and government clients, will theoretically show up as gobbledygook if someone grabs them between Point A and Point B.
Research In Motion, the owner of the BlackBerry, says that each individual user has a key that scrambles and unscrambles their data and that no one, even RIM itself, can access that data from the outside. (Some tech analysts doubt this is 100 percent true, but that's based more on speculation than hard fact).
Second, the BlackBerry stores data from the phones on secure servers that the company itself owns. The UAE complained that since those servers are not in-country, presumably living in RIM's home country of Canada, they can't peek in when they want to.
The countries want RIM to build and use servers in their own countries, making it easier for them to enter a "backdoor" to those servers when they're investigating what they consider a national security concern.
How is data from other phones stored?
Unlike BlackBerry, smartphone makers like Apple and HTC, among others, leave it up to wireless providers or clients to manage data.
Often, that means the data gets stored "in the cloud" -- a network of data centers that quietly secure and process information from all over the world.
That doesn't mean that data isn't safe.
On its website, Apple also promotes the "strong encryption" for data sent on its phones and lists a host of other security features -- from the ability to remotely wipe data from the phone if it falls into the wrong hands to its ability to work with companies' private networks.
Google's open-source Android platform, for phones like the HTC Evo and Droid Incredible, leaves some room for chicanery. But apps like DroidSecurity, with over 2.5 million users, specialize in cloud-based protection.
So, this means governments can't get to my data?
Afraid it doesn't.
With most phones, a government would seek data from the mobile service provider, not the phone company itself. So if you have an iPhone 4 or an old-school phone the size of a brick, a government could theoretically get access.
In the United States, that requires a court order. But laws in other countries, of course, vary.
For the record, some familiar with U.S. intelligence efforts say they have access to BlackBerry data, although the company says it never makes deals with governments to share.
Reading between the lines, this might just mean that U.S. intelligence agencies are more adept at cracking code than those in other countries.
Who else can intercept my info?
Security experts never say never. But with encryption and secure data banks, they say it's unlikely that a random bad actor could steal your transmissions in any usable way.
"If you are not a government and you are not holding the wires of the network of one of the companies like RIM or Google or Alltel, you can't really access the date the user is using or sending," said Dror Shalev, chief technical officer for DroidSecurity.
They say smartphone users are far more at risk from more mundane attacks -- from having their phones (and the data inside them) stolen to using the phone's web browser to click bad links.
"With mobile devices, a lot of the privacy and security risks are really similar to what we've seen with desktops and laptops," said Doris Yang, mobile security product manager for digital security company Symantec.
"A lot of it really does hinge on common sense. Whether we're talking about information stored on your device or in some storage facility, the same rule applies -- you shouldn't be sending out personal information."
Today CNET reports that the European Commission has selected iPhones and HTC phones over BlackBerrys, striking another blow to Reasearch in Motion. This follows Saudi Arabia announcing it will ban BlackBerry service starting Friday. The United Arab Emirates and other countries are threatening to ban BlackBerry services as well.
The EC cited a few criteria for its selection, but this stands out: "openness toward other applications and future technologies."
Following the announcement of the BlackBerry Torch yesterday, we wrote that the BlackBerry felt like yesterday's smartphone compared to other devices on the market. Some thought-out emphasis on bleeding-edge technological features like augmented reality and video conferencing was unfair to RIM, which is focused on fulfilling today's business users' needs.
To be fair, RIM still rules the roost in a few areas: security, email and SMS, and battery life (battery life concerns may be why RIM opted for a less impressive screen for the Torch). For many enterprises, this is a perfect combination of features and will continue to be for some time now. The truth is that most users seem to be perfectly happy with the iPhone and Android's messaging features. iOS and Android already meet the security requirements of most enterprises, and third-party solutions can help make up for other security issues. Android users seem complain the most about battery life, but iPhone users seem satisfied.
Meanwhile, despite having a huge head start on Apple and Google, both dwarf BlackBerry when it comes to the number of apps available. RIM doesn't seem to be winning on quality of apps either. The reality is that developers are making BlackBerry a low priority. Does this matter for the enterprise? Yes. Enterprises' communication and collaboration is quickly moving beyond just email. Web applications - whether on-premise or in the cloud - are becoming increasingly common and mission-critical. Enterprise users are going to increasingly depend on mobile phones to access critical company data, and having native apps to do so will be a strong selling point.
RIM is finally releasing a web browser which may be able to compete with the browsers offered by Apple, Google and Palm. But OS6 isn't even out yet, and when it comes out it only catches RIM up to where others have been for years. Enterprises don't want to invest in technology that will be obsolete in the next quarter; they want technology they can count on to be ready for whatever needs they have two or three years down the road.
And that's not even taking into consideration the pressures IT managers are feeling from employees at all levels to support so-called "consumer" devices, regardless of any technological or business advantages they may have.
It may ultimately be in RIM's best interest to keep its focus on its core competencies of security, messaging and battery life in order to keep the segment of users who place the biggest priority on these features. It may not be able to do much encourage developers to develop for its platform, but as enterprise priorities shift and RIM's competitors improve in those key areas, RIM is going to need to do some serious innovating if it wants to stay relevant to the enterprise at large.
Five years ago, a Canadian handset company stormed onto the scene with the hottest “must have” mobile device. The RIM BlackBerry was around before the iPhone, when the Droid was still just science fiction.
Today, the seas have changed considerably. The mobile scene is now a two-horse race between Apple and Google. Where is RIM, the company that still commands so much of the smartphone market?
The days of the always-reliable BlackBerry may be numbered, save for a major re-focus of the company. BlackBerry will have to not only find its roots, but use them as a recipe to regain its thought leadership amongst mobile influencers and consumers. Here are four possible approaches.
1. Forget Apps – Leverage the New Mobile Web
If you haven’t visited m.youtube.com on your mobile device, go now. Far exceeding the capabilities of any YouTube App, the mobile YouTube Website boasts more features, higher quality video and better load times than the popular apps found on mobile devices. The mobile web will soon leapfrog the app marketplaces, which are mired in slow approval cycles and closed development environments.
BlackBerry should pour its development dollars into making the best mobile browser — one that supports Flash and HTML5. There, we may soon find a coolness factor that the app marketplaces can’t compete with. Mobile web browsing is already on par with current, device-specific apps.
2. Forget “Me Too” Innovation
Just because the App Store and iPad are hits with consumers doesn’t mean that BlackBerry should gear up and jump into the same ring. The iPad is an incredibly cool consumer device, but one that Apple has already invented. What would a BlackBerry tablet have to offer that Apple doesn’t already provide?
If RIM wants to stay relevant, BlackBerry products need to head in new directions, and not just mime innovations that are already doing well on the market.
3. Embrace and Market BBM
Three years ago, I was recording a video shoot with Sean Kingston when he had just ascended the charts with a Billboard #1 hit. After seeing him engrossed with his BlackBerry for four hours straight, I asked him what he was doing. “BBM,” he said with the air of confidence reserved for platinum artists under 20 years of age. “You don’t use BBM?” he asked this 30-year-old CEO of a mobile company.
Note to BlackBerry: BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) still has millions of loyal customers. They crave always-on messaging that is free and available in every corner of the globe. The Kardashians, the Lakers, the stars of Pretty Little Liars should be using BBM. “When your friends are on BBM,” one USC college student recently told me, “you can’t move to an iPhone.”
4. Open Mobile Marketing APIs
For marketers struggling to figure out which unique ad format to support or which mobile ad network to buy from, keep it simple: BlackBerry has 40% of the U.S. smartphone market and allows advertisers to use mobile web standards (not proprietary ad formats) to connect with your still affluent, hip audience. By embracing open standards, BlackBerry can win the love of advertisers who will create high-quality advertisements and not have to create one-off campaigns like the new iAds on Apple’s IOS4.
Today CNET reports that the European Commission has selected iPhones and HTC phones over BlackBerrys, striking another blow to Reasearch in Motion. This follows Saudi Arabia announcing it will ban BlackBerry service starting Friday. The United Arab Emirates and other countries are threatening to ban BlackBerry services as well.
