14 DAY TRIAL // The San Bernardino iPhone saga has divided the world into two different sides, with tech companies claiming that Apple is doing the right thing by not helping the FBI break into a phone used by terrorists and politicians supporting the feds and their demands for custom hack software.
BlackBerry, a company famous for its security, encryption, and privacy systems implemented in BlackBerry OS 10 and Android (starting with the Priv), says that it’ll never build a backdoor for the government, as it wants its devices to run hacker-proof software that doesn’t put user data at risk.
Just like in the case of Apple, BlackBerry’s would receive a major hit should the company decide to put a backdoor in its software for government access, so it’s very clear that the Canadian phone manufacturer treats such matters with extra care.
In a statement offered to PCMag on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, BlackBerry COO Marty Beard has reiterated the company’s commitment to a no-backdoor approach, reminding of a post published by CEO John Chen in January and clearly stating that BlackBerry devices will never share passwords with the government.
“We almost left a market because of government demands”
And to demonstrate that the company is very serious about this, Beard has reminded of a recent dispute in Pakistan, where the company was forced to share user data under a government demand.
“We almost left Pakistan recently because we were asked to provide a back door which we did not do. On the other hand, we comply with legal requests where it makes sense, and we've always done that,” Beard said.
Company CEO John Chen explains that while the government will never be provided with a backdoor to access a BlackBerry device, the only way to break into a phone is insecure third-party applications.
“Access to this information from a BlackBerry device could be due to factors unrelated to how the BlackBerry device was designed, such as user consent, an insecure third party application, or deficient security behavior of the user,” Chen points out.
“There are no backdoors in any BlackBerry devices, and BlackBerry does not store and therefore cannot share BlackBerry device passwords with law enforcement or anyone else.”
As far as the Apple case is concerned, rumor has it that the company is already working on its legal response to FBI’s demands, and new official statements are expected by the end of the week.