Backup Anytime

Blackberry encryption update (India)

The company behind  Blackberry (Research In Motion) has informed the Indian Government (and the public) not alone that it will not provide end user  encryption  keys for the advantage law enforcement intelligence but that it could not do this even if it wanted.

The reason cited is that each user has her own encryption code which Research In Motion do not have access to.

The Indian government first claimed their concern was that Blackberry devices in India communicate through servers outside of India (R.I.M. are based in Canada) and therefore the systems in India could be used by terrorists because the server was not subject to Indian law. Given however that the encryption is on an individual user basis and that the service provider can not unlock the data, it would appear to make little difference where the server is located.

None of this negates the necessity for intelligence regarding major threats and the absolute requirement for those in Government to take a stand. The real issue here is that we have entered a technological era in which the implementation of new legal requirements will often create a complicated stalemate between what the Government want and what technology will make available to them.

It is absolutely reasonable for Blackberry to protect client data and themselves from client data loss by making the data un-encryptable by Blackberry.  The issue with encryption is that it has become reliable on a group level. In other words, an individual code may be cracked over time with expert assistance. The cracking of group or global passwords is becoming uncommon at the same rate as their usage.

In the business of online backup, an encryption model of the type used by Blackberry is exactly what users demand. They want the data to be safe if lost or stolen and they want the encryption to be such that the service provider can not read the data. Anything less today isn’t really encryption but a puzzle which will be broken by one to have the answer distributed to many.