Gulf BlackBerry row lifts veil on state cyberspies

LONDON, (Reuters) – The arguments over whether several  emerging nations can effectively hack BlackBerry devices give a  rare glimpse of the shadowy world of state electronic  surveillance already changing politics, espionage and business.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are both in  dispute with Canadian smartphone maker Research In Motion, saying they want access to the encrypted phones to monitor  security threats. Both are threatening to block its messenger  function.

The row highlights a growing gulf between the idea of a free  Internet and the desire by a growing number of authoritarian  governments from China to Iran to control information and deepen  surveillance to tackle dissent and insurgency.

Indian security agencies are also demanding access to  BlackBerry messages as a condition for further expansion, saying  they suspect militants used the handsets to help plan the 2008  Mumbai attack in which 166 people died.

Lebanon and Algeria are making similar demands.

“It is part of a wider trend,” said Jonathan Wood, global  issues analyst at London-based consultancy Control Risks, which  advises companies on security, corruption, politics and other  issues.    “After 9/11, you had this huge expansion of Western powers  monitoring electronic communications for national security.  Other countries are now catching up. The difference is they want  to use it more broadly.”

That could range from monitoring and thwarting millions of  potential dissidents to gaining advantage in business deals — a  particular worry for Western firms sometimes in competition with  state-backed companies.

Most countries say there are strict controls over  authorising electronic intercepts — but it is often impossible  for outsiders to tell how they are actually used.

“It’s obviously going to be a concern for Western business,”  said Wood. “You have the risk that some of this information may  be used for commercial purposes.”

The BlackBerry in particular has become a ubiquitous tool of  bankers, company executives, political activists and diplomats.  Its government-level 256-bit encryption is at the heart of its  appeal.

BlackBerrys are used for planning everything from coffee  meetings to debt restructuring and corporate mergers, from  protest marches to romantic liaisons — often as their  jetsetting users travel casually through several countries.

Many firms in sensitive sectors already control use.  Lockheed Martin said staff used BlackBerrys in the Gulf and  elsewhere but with restrictions.

“The corporation has rigorous standards and protocols on how  we process and communicate sensitive information,” spokesman  Jeffrey Adams said. “Cyber security is a global concern.”

Some argue there is already a double standard. BlackBerry  servers are located in the United States, Britain and Canada.  Few doubt that intelligence agencies in those countries have  access to them.

Perhaps as a result, France has banned its officials from  using the devices. But most analysts say Western efforts have  focused mainly on trying to use electronic intercepts to track a  small number of militants, organised criminals and others  including child pornographers.  Some emerging nations are clearly targeting political  dissenters for whom cheap, hard-to-trace electronic  communications have made organising much easier.

“When BlackBerry came, I started to get messages criticising  the government from people I’d never seen involved in activism,”  said UAE blogger Ahmed Mansour. “Regular people started  discussing taboo subjects.”

Widespread unrest, coordinated on the Internet, after Iran’s  disputed election last year showed how social networking and  microblogging sites such as Twitter could be used to mobilise  opposition. Since then many countries have tightened controls  and blocked websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

In the highest-profile row until now, Google angered Beijing  earlier this year when it announced it would no longer comply  with Chinese censorship rules.

It said its servers had suffered numerous cyber-attacks from  China — seen as keen to monitor dissidents over the Internet  while limiting access to outside sites through its firewall.

“All the major high-tech multinationals are pushing for a  boundless global Internet, while authoritarian states across the  board are increasingly interested in regionally based  “intranets” where governments exert sovereignty over their own  servers and routers,” Ian Bremmer, president of political risk  consultancy Eurasia Group, wrote in a note.

BEYOND THE SPOTLIGHT

Western intelligence agencies have also occasionally been  tripped up by the new electronic world. Security experts were   aghast last year when it emerged the wife of the new head of  Britain’s spy service MI6 had posted pictures of her husband,  family and friends and other personal details on Facebook.

But normally, secrecy reigns. Bjoern Rupp, chief executive  of secure phone manufacturer GSMK — which supplies governments,  celebrities and armed forces — said the unusual feature of the  Saudi and UAE BlackBerry dispute was its public nature.