BlackBerry Comments on Canadian Police Eavesdropping Report (blackberry.com) 61
Last week, a report, citing court documents, claimed that Canadian police have had BlackBerry's global decryption key since 2010. Today BlackBerry CEO John Chen officially commented on the report. In a blog post, Chen reiterated that his company remains committed to doing what is "right for the citizenry," without confirming if the Candian police have the "global encryption key." "I have stated before that we are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good," Chen wrote, adding that the company's cooperation with the Canadian police resulted in shutting down a criminal organization. He adds: Regarding BlackBerry's assistance, I can reaffirm that we stood by our lawful access principles. Furthermore, at no point was BlackBerry's BES server involved. Our BES continues to be impenetrable -- also without the ability for backdoor access -- and is the most secure mobile platform for managing all mobile devices. That's why we are the gold standard in government and enterprise-grade security. For BlackBerry, there is a balance between doing what's right, such as helping to apprehend criminals, and preventing government abuse of invading citizen's privacy, including when we refused to give Pakistan access to our servers. (Update). We have been able to find this balance even as governments have pressured us to change our ethical grounds. Despite these pressures, our position has been unwavering and our actions are proof we commit to these principles. To recall, Chen criticized Apple last year when the iPhone maker refused to unlock a terrorist's iPhone. At the time, he said, Apple was "putting reputation above the greater good."
Canada's Response (Score:2, Funny)
Soorry aboot that.
Re: (Score:2)
No no. See we have a new PM in Canada, many have taking him to calling him PM Zoolander or Shiny Pony. You're about to get a lesson in quantum computing, and why corruption as the head of the Liberal Party is okay.
"Soorry aboot that" comes after they get caught.
One every minute (Score:1, Interesting)
Our BES continues to be impenetrable
If you believe that, you're a sucker.
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located the sucker.
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No, actually not. But they are very bad about saying that. The issue is that they want to look law-enforcement-friendly, because they hope then governments will buy their phones. At the same time, a backdoor would prevent those sales reliably. So they are wobbling around. This is nothing but a slow corporate suicide. A pity, because they had a significantly superior OS on their phones and some pretty nice hardware too.
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Translation (Score:2, Interesting)
"Fuck you if you're a privat customer, all your data are belong to us, and continue to trust us if you're an enterprise customer, we promise we won't fuck you the second we decide it's for the greater good."
Two differnt products (Score:5, Informative)
BlackBerry has two products. One for businesses and other large organizations called BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) that gives them their own private server with their own secret key and one for everyone else where BlackBerry controls the server and has and apparently shares the key.
Lets them have their cake and eat it too, because they can both cooperate with the courts to help them catch (non-corporate) criminals with not turning off big corporations and governments who care about security.
Mod as insightful [Re:Two differnt products] (Score:1)
BlackBerry has two products. One for businesses and other large organizations called BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) that gives them their own private server with their own secret key and one for everyone else where BlackBerry controls the server and has and apparently shares the key.
Ah, this post seems to have found the weasel-wording that resolves the contradiction between the Canadian government saying that Canadian police have had BlackBerry's global decryption key since 2010 [vice.com], and Blackberry saying: "BES continues to be impenetrable -- also without the ability for backdoor access"
OK. So, the police do have the backdoor to the ordinary Blackberry systems, but they have a separate system BES for businesses, which (they say) isn't backdoored.
Re: (Score:3)
Fortunately for BB, they didn't say that under oath...
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BlackBerry has two products. One for businesses and other large organizations called BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) that gives them their own private server with their own secret key and one for everyone else where BlackBerry controls the server and has and apparently shares the key.
Given the latter, combined with Chen's various statements... unless you've audited the BB source code, it's silly to assume those enterprise "secure" keys don't make their way to BB headquarters - or to the government - somehow.
Regardless of that: If you're a personal Blackberry user, treat all your communications as insecure as plain SMS. It's doubtful that key hasn't found its way into the hands of various hacking groups and various nation states. Don't use it for anything you wouldn't want anyone else to
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Actually, even running a BES doesn't help that much, all traffic still runs through the BES servers in Canada.
http://support.blackberry.com/... [blackberry.com]
The local BES server gets the mail from the mail server, and sends it to the Canadian BES servers, where the phones retrieve the mail. The BES server even has complete access to the mail server, as this is required for it to function.
Didn't DENY either (Score:2)
So this guy is a two-faced asshat...the statement should have read he didn't DENY or 'confirm' not just 'confirm' that the Canadian Police had the keys...all he did was deflect..."o you want to look behind this curtain...quick look over there...look at that silly cat!"...He didn't answer the question asked which should have been a simple 'yes/no' answer...so we get to assume they DID have the keys (not just assume of course but know they did because its in court records saying so)...the guys an asshat pure
"the greater good" "balance" (Score:3, Interesting)
All these nice comfy words to lull us into fascism. Obviously they don't believe in privacy, their propaganda piece notwithstanding. Consider them a government agent, and leave it at that. And besides, what do they have to offer anyway?
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Yo "Dawg"! We can't have "nice talks" simply because you are trolling. But don't let me stop ya!
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Window shades and locks on doors don't keep the police out if they have legitimate reason to enter
And you might have a point if there were a legitimate process for deciding whether the police have a legitimate reason.
Remind me again how many FISA warrant requests were declined?
Re: (Score:3)
What's wrong?
Have a look at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
How do you feel about it now?
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Be Afraid (Score:5, Interesting)
When leaders start using propaganda like "doing what is right for the citizenry" and "greater good" we should get nervous. A CTV article mentioned that government and corporate clients were exempt from this intrusion. That says it all.
hmm... (Score:2)
Equivocate much? (Score:3)
I have stated before that we are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good,
That would be a huge step up from days when companies didn't give a shit about their reputations at all. See companies like United Fruit [wikipedia.org] if you need examples of what evil looks like.
Furthermore I think he's equivocating more than a little bit. "The greater good"? I assume this is code for someone who thinks that we should allow the government to play fast an loose with our civil liberties, never mind the cost or consequences. People who think that there is some middle ground where only the good guys can use back doors in encryption. People who think that cops have a right to be lazy.
The Greater Good (Score:2)
* - and the RCMP
And "The Grey Lensman" (Score:2)
Note to self*: Re-watch Hot Fuzz.
Whenever I start to feel any sympathy for government overreach to "protect" us, I re-read a scene in E. E. "Doc" Smith's _The Grey Lensman_. The one where the institutionally self-directed and unsupervised nark with the mind-reading spy technology wipes out the nest of dope dealers by calling in the beam-weapon equivalent of a total-annihilation nuclear strike on the city where they're based.
Daren't let even one of them escape, after all. They're corrupting our population'
And they didn't abuse this power? (Score:2)
The question isn't why would they? That is obvious. The question is what possibly could have stopped them? How about nothing. They literally would have nothing to lose handing over this access and everything to gain.
Creepy or inchoerent? (Score:2)
This is either creepy or incoherent.
John Chen
Merriam-Webster
What could your reputation be, other than the assessment of people as to whether you are acting for the greater good?
criminal organizations (Score:2)
TFS:
> Chen wrote, adding that the company's cooperation with the Canadian police resulted in shutting down a criminal organization.
And yet the Clinton Foundation is still in operation. Conflicting info, not sure how to resolve.