London - An MP called on Tuesday for BlackBerry's instant
messaging service to be suspended after rioters used it to mobilise in London
and other cities.
David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, where London's worst riots
for decades began on Saturday, appealed on Twitter and on BBC radio for
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion to suspend BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).
"This is one of the reasons why unsophisticated
criminals are outfoxing an otherwise sophisticated police force," he
tweeted. "BBM is different as it is encrypted and police can't access
it."
The riots, in which shops are being looted and cars and
buildings set ablaze, spread to Birmingham and other centres.
Politicians and police are blaming the violence on criminals
and hooligans but some commentators and local residents say its roots lie in
anger over economic hardship in a city where the prospects for many youths are
dim.
Many of the rioters favour BlackBerry Messenger over Twitter
and other social media because its messages are encrypted and private, but the
service is widely used and messages can easily be sent to groups.
Research In Motion said in a statement on Monday: "As
in all markets around the world where BlackBerry is available, we co-operate
with local telecommunications operators, law enforcement and regulatory
officials."
The company declined to say whether it was handing over chat
logs or user details to police.
Research In Motion's Inside BlackBerry blog was hacked on
Tuesday by a group going by the name of Teampoison. The group posted a warning
to the company not to co-operate with police.
"You Will NOT assist the UK Police because if u do
innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time
and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all," the
statement said.
"If you do assist the police by giving them chat logs,
gps locations, customer information & access to peoples BlackBerryMessengers
you will regret it, we have access to your database which includes your
employees information; e.g - Addresses, Names, Phone Numbers etc. - now if u
assist the police, we WILL make this information public and pass it onto
rioters," it said.
Younger clientele
Sameet Kanade, analyst at Northern Securities in Toronto,
said: "RIM will need the directive of the UK authorities and the
cooperation of the carriers. Lawful intercept is the only valid legal reason
that a carrier and handset vendor can intervene.
"In terms of actual mechanism, RIM has always claimed
that it is unable to de-encrypt/decipher messages routed through the BES or BIS
servers. It may be able to disable the routing of messages at best, from what I
understand."
Geoff Blaber, analyst with UK telecoms research firm CCS
Insight, said: "One option would be to switch it off. But BBM is highly
popular and has got a big installed base in the UK."
BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM as it is popularly known, has
driven sales to new audiences for RIM in recent years as it expanded from its
base as a tool for executives to a more consumer and younger clientele.
It has more than 45 million active users worldwide, 70% of
whom use it daily, sending billions of messages in total every month.
Users with data plans can instantly pass text messages,
pictures and other files without incurring charges from their network carrier.
RIM has got into hot water in the past on the one hand for
cooperating with governments seen as repressive, and on the other for not
cooperating enough with the security needs of authorities in some countries.
Its encrypted services, which it moves over its own servers
via telecom carriers, have been blamed for aiding militant attacks in India and
for allowing unrelated men and women to communicate in Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates.
In August last year, a source close to talks between RIM and
Saudi authorities said the Canadian company had agreed to hand over information
that would allow monitoring of BBM.
A deal was also reached in the UAE, averting a threatened
ban on all BlackBerry services.
The company says it cooperates with authorities around the
world with a consistent standard.
RIM has been relatively willing to provide authorities with
access to its consumer services, such as BBM, but says it has no way of
allowing monitoring of its enterprise email.
In the case of India, RIM gave the authorities access to
BlackBerry Messenger services but said it did not have the technical
capabilities to provide interception of corporate emails on the popular device.
India has demanded access to all BlackBerry services as part
of efforts to fight militancy and security threats over the internet and
through telephone communications.
In London, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh of
the Metropolitan police said on Tuesday: "Police have got extensive
monitoring of this BlackBerry messaging model and actually a lot of people who
are seeing these Blackberry messages are forwarding them to the police."
Police did not immediately respond to a request for more
details of how they were monitoring message traffic.