Bad guys love RIM’s BlackBerry
p2pnet news view Crime | Mobiles:- A while back, Skype was getting it in the neck because, apparently, members of the Mafia favour it. And not for calling their wives.
Italy’s Direzione Nazionale Antimafia office in Rome was behind the allegation but ten, Eurojust has, “significally altered a statement in which it said criminals were using Skype to avoid detection by the authorities,” said ZDNet UK.
Now it’s RIM’s turn.
Messages sent on a BlackBerry are so hard to intercept they’ve become the “device of choice for criminals,” says the CBC, also noting cops like it for the same reason.
“They completely know that this technology is to their advantage,” according to superintendent Pat Fogerty of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia, a division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. “And they will stay on that technology until such time that there is new technology that will be even more secure.”
The story has Liberal MP Marlene Jennings saying cops hwant legislation to force ISPs and wireless providers to, “use technology that can be tapped”.
“Law enforcement needs it, Canadians need it,” she says in the story, claiming, “it’s an essential tool for the battle against crime”.
But such a bill could possibly hurt an industry whose legitimate customers also rely on mobile devices, says University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist.
There needs to be a balance between people’s right to privacy and security and law enforcement’s investigative needs and so far, the CBC him saying, police have been, “unable to make a compelling case that any of their investigations have been impeded by a lack of quick access to certain information or communications”.
Public safety minister Peter Van Loan recently said Canada needs to update its wiretapping laws and, “Such a law is expected to require law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant before they can force internet service providers to give up customer information,” according to the story, which adds in 2007, former public safety minister Stockwell Day made a promise to include that requirement.
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
“Law enforcement needs it, Canadians need it.”
Says who?!
The people who would have us turn into a complete police state keep singing the same bullshit, and the mainstream media are always glad to pump up the volume. Thanks again, CBC!
March 29th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
“Public safety minister Peter Van Loan recently said Canada needs to update its wiretapping laws”
The bullshit that the governments come up with as excuses to wiretap are rediculous. Criminals drink water and eat food. Is the government gonna take away people’s right to eat just because criminals eat food as well? Death to the NWO. They are the real criminals.
August 4th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Can’t the feds listen in through the speaker phone even if the phone is shutoff? I don’t see how the secure message capabilities could outweight that problem.