Techorati

The government has decided to ban official use of BlackBerry cellphones to plug leakage of sensitive information to hostile parties, citing sources in Interior Ministry.

Paper said that Pakistan Armed Forces ie Army, Air Force and Pakistan Navy have already banned the use of Blackberry for official business. Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Ministry of Information Technology and Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs are backing this proposal, wrote the paper.

This ban must be viewed in the context of WikiLeaks revelations that shook the world including Pakistan through the release of thousands of secret cables sent by US embassies to the State Department. The sources said it has been observed that some federal and provincial departments’ functionaries are using BlackBerry cell phones for communication of official voice/data.

There are following two fundamental problems in the use of BlackBerry:

• Its encryption/decryption keys are controlled by a foreign-based company. Therefore, a subscriber using BlackBerry is outside our communication security regime
• The moment a BlackBerry is switched on, it is automatically connected to the Internet. Voice/data being transmitted by the set is thus available to interested/hostile parties based abroad and can, therefore, be used/exploited for ulterior motives. In fact, a BlackBerry is a security threat even if it is in an idle state.

Business recorder said Chinese and French governments have imposed ban on Research in Motion (RIM). There are also reports that Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have undertaken initiatives to place restraints on BlackBerry services.

The US and European countries have vital interests and troops in Afghanistan. Therefore, it can be safely assumed that there can be attempts to monitor communication traffic originating from Afghanistan and surrounding countries.

The possibility of some foreign states supporting their security partners to facilitate access to the communications traffic originating on BlackBerry network in the region cannot be ruled out.

Cabinet Division has recommended that any communication which has control outside Pakistan should not be used in view of high risk of cyber espionage.

Since BlackBerry is a brand of a foreign company whose services are controlled from outside Pakistan its use by government functionaries at all levels for official business poses a credible threat to national security and needs to be banned immediately, sources quoted the Cabinet Division as recommending to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, noted the paper

Everyone has heard about Blackberry or knows someone using the services and praising them incessantly. I was never a supporter, till I started using a Blackberry and let me tell you, it is addictive.

Briefly, Blackberry is a product of Research in Motion, a Canadian company and it prides itself in letting you access your e-mails ‘on the go’. Currently, the Blackberry services on offer are BIS (Blackberry Internet Services) for individual as well as Corporate customer, BES Express (Blackberry Enterprise Server Express), BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) and BPS (Blackberry professional Server) for Corporate users.

The basic services that are available for all of the above mentioned solutions are as follows:

Push Mail	Phone
24 hour web access	SMS
Instant Messaging	Organizer Features
Attachments	Multimedia Features

Blackberry Internet Service (BIS): This service is oriented towards individual users to meet all their professional, business as well as multimedia needs. It supports all basic e-mail protocols like POP3, IMAP, ISP, OWA, and offers wireless email synchronization, wireless Calendar and Contacts synchronization (through data cable) as well as attachment viewing and editing. The advantages offered as easy mail set-up, access to popular IM & social networking apps, Blackberry browser and messenger.

Blackberry Professional Server (BPS): This is a solution for small business organizations with up to 30 devices. This can be upgraded to the other versions as well. It has all the advantages of BIS and can simply be installed on an existing mail server and has predetermined IT policies which are easy to setup.

Also supports MS Exchange as well as IBM Lotus Domino. Startup prices are $499 for 5 users and the Blackberry Data Plan. Pricing for additional licenses to be purchased are 1 CAL (Client Access License) is $99, 5 CALs is $429 and 10 CALs is $699. It has all other features except Attachment viewing and editing option.

Blackberry Enterprise Server Express (BES Express or BES+): A great option for small and medium size businesses which require BES but cannot afford the cost involved. The best feature is the fact that there are no additional costs for CALs, no cost for server and if users remain below 70, the same e-mail server can be used. It supports MS Exchange as well as IBM Lotus Domino and in case the users exceed 70 and upto 200, a separate server needs to be installed. All other features such as wireless email synchronization, wireless Calendar and Contacts synchronization (through data cable), access to Intranet as well as attachment viewing and editing are available.

Blackberry Enterprise Server: BES provides a complete solution to all the communication needs of a large organization. All possible features are available and your local IT department can also make IT policies to restrict information sharing, if need be.

It supports MS Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino as well Novell GroupWise. It can support more than 2000 users per server and the start cost is $4041 which includes licenses for 20 users besides the BES data plan.

The pricing for licensing is the same as BPS with another option of 50 CALs for $3299. Supports all other features which are present in the other Blackberry options.

All the costs mentioned above are besides the Blackberry Data Plan that you will need from your local service provider.

Blackberry’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) has always been their simplicity, the security they offer with encryption for e-mails as well as Blackberry messenger and using Triple DES (3DES) for their Blackberry Enterprise Server. It is compatible with almost all commonly used E-mail servers as well as web based servers. You can also use Intranet applications on your Blackberry handset as well as manage your user’s settings remotely through the server.

No matter if you are a professional, a small Business owner or a CEO of a large organization, Blackberry is there to meet all of your communication needs.

Hopefully, this little article helped you choose the solution you require which best matches your needs.

And before I forget, in case of any issues in configuring your blackberry services on your device, you can also go to http://www.troubleshootingtoolkit.com/ which is a really neat utility provided by RIM.