UK Riot-linked group threatens RIM as Messenger targeted

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 10 August 2011 12:25

Your IT - Mobility

RIM's BlackBerry Messenger software is helping rioters stay co-ordinated in their efforts to cause serious mayhem in London, but with calls for Messenger to be blocked, could a genuinely useful technology be hobbled by calls for greater security?

Although simply blocking BlackBerry's encrypted Messenger communications would go a long way to stopping London's rioters from being so incredibly well co-ordinated against what is supposed to be a 21st century police force, blocking Messenger would stop all its legitimate users from communicating, too.

With BB Messenger chats being encrypted, police can't easily break into them to see what's being said - unlike with SMS messages where telcos can easily aid police in getting access to those texts when legally appropriate.

The same is true of Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites where the authorities can easily be granted access by the companies in question without having to seek ways around encryption first, thus making BB Messenger the organisers tool of choice, and what is making them so despairingly successful.

Now we have Fairfax Media reporting that a riot-linked group called 'Teampoison' hacked into RIM's 'Inside BlackBerry' blog with quite a nasty threat: '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.

"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,' added the chilling statement.

Of course, we don't know whether Teampoison's threats are backed up by actual information, but we can certainly see here that technology can be used for both good and bad.

It's up to end users to decide how to best use that technology, and naturally, if they use it in a way that breaks laws, those users shouldn't be surprised to find that the police will be after them as they gather their evidence and make their case to arrest someone.

We've already seen plenty of photos in the media from CCTV footage giving UK authorities a clear picture of some of the people involved, and there's no particular reason why the UK police won't do their job in tracking down the people involved as best they can and subjecting them to the 'criminal justice system'.

It would just be a shame to see BlackBerry's Messenger service lose its encryption or incredibly popular usefulness to law abiding citizens because some people choose to use it for nefarious purposes.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens from the aftermath, but if small groups of people give governments an excuse to keep tabs ever more closely on citizens, such as by engaging in civil unrest, governments will not 'waste the crisis' and will seize the opportunities it provides. 

Thus we need to ensure that civil liberties and the principles of freedom are not damaged by the actions of a few against everyone else.

It's a tough job in today's world, but with some people clearly committed to looting, civil unrest, violence against sho owners, random people and police, those who are committed to a peaceful, prosperous and free society shouldn't let themselves be run over by rioters.

What changes ultimately come from the chaos is yet to be seen, but I just hope that BB Messenger isn't added to the list of casualties.