BlackBerry under severe LOSS!!
Those of you who have bought BlackBerry stocks are in for a loss, I guess. BlackBerry stock value dropped by 7% a few days back and the Canadian company saw a $2.7 billion loss due to this. This is because some countries have warned RIM that its services will be banned in these countries if the company does not cooperate with the governments to give access to user data that is sent out of the countries in an encrypted fashion and stored in the servers located in Canada.
In response to this, RIM had stated that the encryption algorithm used by it is very secure and even the company can not break it. But still, the governments are not ready to take NO for an answer. UAE is still in negotiations with RIM on the issue. But, the UAE has said that it will shut down email, messaging and web browsing services for BlackBerry users in the country on 11 October.
India, which is very much concerned that terrorist or other law breaking bodies may use the highly secure and encrypted communication that the BlackBerry offers to plan attacks in the country. August 31st is the due date that the Indian security agency has given RIM for coming up with a solution to this. RIM has already agreed to give some access to the agencies, but on a request basis. This is not going to be a real time access, and the monitoring procedure is said to at least 10 days. Indian government is not happy with this, quiet obviously.
Saudi Arabia is the third country in the line who is ready for the ban. BlackBerry services here were already banned earlier this month. But the services have been started again and the agreement between the government here and RIM is that RIM is supposed to set up a local server in the country and not let any encrypted data escape the borders of the country.
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim majority nation, has also requested local data servers from the Canadian RIM. Though there are no confirmed decisions, the country is planning on banning the services too.
Finally, Lebanon, the fifth and the last county, is still thinking whether the services offered by RIM will pose a security breach in the country and does it need a ban. Nothing for sure yet from Lebanon.
Considered to the best email and the best secure services in the world of mobile communication, the very fact which made BlackBerry popular is now posing the biggest threat to the company. It is now to see what the countries come up with.
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Sunny has written 1138 articles on this blog.
Editor @ The Tech Check, Professional Blogger, A bit lazy when it comes to getting out of my chair. :)
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