Row lifts veil on state cyberspies

London: The arguments over whether several emerging nations can effectively hack BlackBerry devices gives 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 governments from China to Iran to control information and deepen surveillance to tackle dissent and insurgency.

Demanding access

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.

Strict controls

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.

Multiple usage

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

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.

Authorities could hack data

Research in Motion's (RIM) 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.

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.

India, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates say they need RIM's cooperation so they can decode messages scrambled with BlackBerry's proprietary technology. They have threatened to restrict RIM's operations if the company won't meet their demands, which they say are driven by national security concerns.

But if RIM doesn't back down, the governments themselves could instead choose to hack into the BlackBerry network.