Research in Motion, manufacturer of BlackBerry smartphones, is close to reaching an agreement with the UAE government about sharing encrypted data, according to local reports.
RIM has been battling a storm since the beginning of August, when the…
Research in Motion, manufacturer of BlackBerry smartphones, is close to reaching an agreement with the UAE government about sharing encrypted data, according to local reports.
RIM has been battling a storm since the beginning of August, when the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said it was going to block all BlackBerry email, instant messaging and browser services from October 11 “as a matter of national security”.
The squall in the small, security-conscious Gulf state blew into Saudi Arabia, India and Lebanon, which all threatened some denial of service to RIM.
At present, BlackBerry sends encrypted data to servers outside the UAE, preventing the state from monitoring traffic.
The Financial Times claims that officials have been holding talks with the Canadian company, and Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the US, said that negotiations were making “good progress”, with the rough outline of a compromise now taking shape.
In neighbouring Saudi Arabia, BlackBerry services were temporarily taken down on August 9, before being restored in full. Local sources close to the Saudi telecoms regulator told wire services that a deal had been struck that would see RIM set up a server in the Kingdom to allow security forces to monitor Blackberry messages in and out of the country.
The Economic Times of India also reported over the weekend that a similar deal was close to being agreed between the Indian government and RIM.
Unnamed sources told the FT that in the UAE, the user’s security concerns would only be overruled if a judge applied for access to messages.
