14 DAY TRIAL // The ministers of the German Federal Government and members of the Federal Assembly have been advised against using BlackBerry smartphones because it uses a proprietary protocol that poses security risks.
These days everyone's taking a swing at Research In Motion (RIM), the company producing the BlackBerry handsets, which can't seem get a break from bans against its product being either suggested or considered.
Some countries accuse the company of making the smartphones too secure for national security agencies to snoop their communications, while others like Germany claim they're too insecure for use in official business.
German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported [Google Translate] on Monday that some senior officials are encouraging a general BlackBerry ban in at least some ministries citing security concerns.
The main problem is that BlackBerry communications, even if encrypted pass through RIM's servers in UK and Canada, which is not acceptable when it comes to official data.
It appears that the Minister of Interior Thomas de Maizière has advised other ministers since as early as November 2009 to stop using BlackBerry handsets.
This is also based on a recommendation from the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), which proposes the SiMKo 2 smartphones produced by T-Systems over BlackBerries or iPhones.
The SiMKo 2 device was presented at CeBIT last year and is built specifically to protect mobile data communications classified for official use only.
It uses VPN tunneling by default, had security-risk features like Bluetooth, GPS and WLAN removed, and comes with applications approved by the BSI.
In related news, there are unconfirmed reports that RIM is considering installing a BlackBerry server in Saudi Arabia in order to address the country's national security concerns and avoid a ban.
However, it's unclear how this move would give Saudi security agencies access to BlackBerry communications since RIM's servers are only used as mere carriers for the encrypted data.
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