RIM Tells The World How BlackBerry Security Works

I’ve been expecting RIM to make a statement about their security since this non-sense over countries wanting the ability to snoop into what BlackBerry users are doing. BlackBerry Cool managed to score such a statement from them and I encourage you to read it in full. But let me hit the highlights:

  • The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances. RIM would simply be unable to accommodate any request for a copy of a customer’s encryption key since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator, ever possess a copy of the key.
  • The BlackBerry security architecture was also purposefully designed to perform as a global system independent of geography. The location of data centers and the customer’s choice of wireless network are irrelevant factors from a security perspective since end-to-end encryption is utilized and transmissions are no more decipherable or less secure based on the selection of a wireless network or the location of a data center. All data remains encrypted through all points of transfer between the customer’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the customer’s device (at no point in the transfer is data decrypted and re-encrypted).

So, if you’re say the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, or some other country who wants to see what your citizens are doing via BlackBerry, you’re out of luck. I think the key point in this document is this:

RIM assures customers that it will not compromise the integrity and security of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution.

That’s the best news I have heard all week.

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