BlackBerry ban threat real, says government

NEW DELHI

Sending a strong message to the telecommunication industry, the government told parliament on Thursday that it may ban BlackBerry if interception and monitoring of certain services by security agencies was not allowed.

This is the first time that the government has used the word 'ban' with regard to BlackBerry in parliament.

Asked whether telecom operators would be given time beyond August 31, the deadline set for BlackBerry makers Research In Motion (RIM), for compliance with security norms, a government representative said, "They have already been given enough time..."

BlackBerry Ban

BlackBerry Ban With BB services on the blink, the young are at a loss, the not-so-young, gleeful

Yet another meeting between Worldwide Governments Against BlackBerry and representatives of Research in Motion has ended at an impasse. Meanwhile, the ban on the BlackBerry Messenger has reached its sixth month.

The strange sight of sputtering teens trying to form words and string together sentences, which had doctors worldwide fearing there had been a global bio-attack focused on the young, it still fair common.

BlackBerry users miffed over data block threat

Not happy Block on data services would reduce the devices to hand-phone-use only, feel many

Mumbai:

Country's BlackBerry users reacted with dismay on Friday to a government threat to block data services on security grounds, although some said it was necessary in the ongoing fight against extremism.

The Internet-enabled smartphones have become a must-have accessory in big cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and Banglore, as a sign of wealth, style and success for anyone from well-helped colleges students to corporate executives.

BlackBerry talks of 'lawful access'

NEW DELHI:

A day after the government fixed the August 31 deadline for service providers to come up with a technical solution for lawful interception of the encrypted messenger and the enterprise email services of BlackBerry. Research In Motion (RIM), the Canada-based makers of the smart phone, has started phone, has started talking of "lawful access" solution for its services, but with riders attached.

What's at stake in BlackBerry crisis

The BlackBerry crisis

Large internet and telecom firms challenge the notion of a nation state. That's why governments want to control them

BLACKBERRY ENCRYPTION

BlackBerry's Messenger application encrypts data traffic in transit between the BlackBerry Server and BlackBerry devices automatically

Saudis give cell firms more time

Grace period of 48 hours to test system to avoid BlackBerry ban

Dubai:
Saudi Arabia's telecom regulator said it was giving the country's mobile operators additional time to finalise a deal allowing BlackBerry messaging services to continue.

The kingdom's communications and information technology commission said late on Saturday it was giving telecom companies a grace period of 48 hours - ending Monday - to test "proposed solutions" aimed at averting a ban.

'BlackBerry can be hacked into'

Experts warn network not as safe as claimed by its maker

Boston:

Research in Motion's (RIM's) resistance to giving governments access to its BlackBerry network misses a major point - authorities could probably hack the data on their own if they want it badly enough, security experts say.

Indeed, a major attack against BlackBerry users by a telecom in the UAE employed that very tactic a year ago, according to RIM. Experts say other malicious programs are likely to be lurking around, readying to be sprung.

No deal yet on BlackBerry: Raja

New Delhi:
Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM), which owns BlackBerry, has not reached any agreement with the centre over the issue of giving access of data to the government, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja said on Thursday.

For data, tug-of-war intensifies over privacy versus security

The threat by the United Arab Emirates to shut down mobile services on BlackBerrys like e-mail and text messaging underscores a growing tension between communications companies and governments over how to balances privacy with national security.

No shades of grey here

Monitoring BlackBerry communication is important for national security

For more than two years, Indian security agencies have been engaging with Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturers of the BlackBerry mobile system, to work out an arrangement by which the former can get access to the communications - particularly e-mails and chats - that are transmitted in an encrypted form from such handsets. But little was achieved and pressure was building up on both sides due to the increasing fears of usage of such handsets by terrorist and other fissiparous groups. Notwithstanding the fact that there was a verification process in place for the provision of any mobile connection, the agencies were adamant to gain access to the traffic flow through the BlackBerry mobile handsets.

Govt spies may track your Blackberry

DUBAI:
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion willing to block porn sites and let government spies snoop on users, newspapers reported on Tuesday, following a shock ban on its key services in the gulf.

The BlackeBerry's secrecy has come under scrutiny since Sunday, when the UAE announced plans to ban BlackBerry messenger, email and Web browser services from October 11.

Ban on BlackBerry unlikely

New Delhi

Around five lakh BlackBerry users in India can breathe easy now. A ban on the service is unlikely.

A senior home ministry official said on Thursday that the government is not considering a ban on the service, whose email facility has been a security concern as it does not permit data interception.

Hungry kya? BlackBerry courts desi

New Delhi: The Canadian communications giant Research In Motion (RIM), better known for its flagship smart phone brand BlackBerry, is betting big on the flavour of Indian regional languages to expand its base beyond metros and Tier-I cities.

It believes localised service offerings like push e-mail facility in regional languages such as Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi would help rope in customers.

Pak blocks Twitter, Blackberry after Facebook and YouTube

Islamabad

Pakistanis protest against Facebook, which encouraged users to post images of Prophet Mohammad, in Islamabad,on Friday

After blocking Facebook and YouTube, the Pakistani authorities on Friday widened the crackdown on websites with blasphemous contents by restricting access to the social networking website Twitter. They have also blocked Blackberry Mobile services, pushing Pakistan back to pre-historic times. No reason was given for banning Blackberry's service.

Pakistani users were unable to log into Twitter after internet service providers blocked access to the site. When users tried to log into the sites, there browsers displayed the message 'This site is restricted'. Over two days, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked websites like Facebook and YouTube, citing "sacrilegious contents" as the reason tor the action.

The ban,which includes certain pages on Flickr and Wikipedia, came a day after access to Facebook was suspended on orders from a Pakistani court. Some Islamic lawyers won that injunction, arguing that a contest, started by users for drawings of the Prophet Mohammad and called 'Everybody Draw Mohammad day', was offensive.

The authorities have blocked over 450 URLs.

The government acted against Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the "derogatory material," the PTA said.

Mean while, thousands of protesters took to the streets across Pakistan and called the contest to draw caricatures of the Prophet open "cyber terrorism".

In Islamabad, religious leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-ul-Dawa issued a decree calling for the killing of those who were involved in initiating the competition as well as those taking part in it.

In Lahore, workers of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-ul-Dawa staged protest rallies, burnt US and Swedish flags and demanded the youth boycott such sites.

According to Wahaj-us-Siraj, a spokesman for ISPs in Pakistan, Facebook and YouTube were among the three most-viewed websites in the country. "At least 3.5 million use these websites regularly," he said, adding the sacrilegious content was also against the policies of the websites, which boast of strict use-and-abuse rules.

"We are bound to check child pornography websites, because it is something wrong and has nothing to do with the freedom of speech. Similarly, these caricatures are another example of absurdity."

The two websites generate revenues by posting Pakistan-specific advertisements, Siraj said.

"However, it is very hard to say how much they actually earn from Pakistan, but many telecommunication companies were using these websites. The hit would be substantial," he said, adding, "We have already stopped all advertisements for our clients on these websites."

• 170mn population of Pakistan
• 60% people are under the age of 25
• 25mn Number of Internet users in Pakistan
• $1,00,000 Bounty offered by al-Qaeda to the person who kills Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks
  
  Row over Prophet cartoon in S Africa: A South African weekly on Friday published a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad, raising fears of reprisal attacks during the football World Cup in June. The cartoon depicts the Prophet on a psychologist's couch saying that his followers do not have a sense of humour.
  
  'I didn't start the Facebook page': Cartoonist Molly Norris has distanced herself from the row over 'Everybody Draw Mohammad Day!', saying, "I never created a Facebook page for EDMD. A stranger to me did so." She said, "I made a cartoon about the TV show South Park being censored,"
  
  Ban not justified: Pakistani people have the right to know about the world. The extremists want to snatch this tight from the people which will help extremism.
  
  The competition hurt Muslims. But only that link should have been blocked. It's just that one page.
  
  Bans Elsewhere: China routinely controls users' access to many sites, and was locked for months in a battle with Google over censorship controls
  
  In Turkey, authorities had imposed a sweeping ban for months on YouTube because of offensive material to the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Thailand also blocked YouTube in 2007 over content that officials said was disrespectful to the king.