U.A.E. Puts the Squeeze on Black Berry http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704702304575402493300698912.ht... Government Cites National-Security Concerns as It Bans Email, IM and Web Services in Battle Over Access to User By MARGARET COKER in Abu Dhabi, TIM FALCONER in Dubai and PHRED DVORAK in Toronto BlackBerry email, instant-messaging and Web-browsing services soon will be banned in the United Arab Emirates, regulators said, citing a dispute with the device's maker about how it handles electronic data. The U.A.E. market is relatively small for Canada's Research In Motion Ltd., which makes the BlackBerry smartphone. But the suspension of data service comes amid unease by at least one other government, India, over the inability to monitor or review electronic communications on the device in criminal, terrorist or national-security investigations. And a Saudi Arabian official said Sunday that regulators there ordered telecommunications companies to block BlackBerry IM services later this month, according to Zawya Dow Jones. The official didn't explain the decision. At the heart of the battle is access to the data transmitted by BlackBerrys. RIM processes the information through a handful of secure Network Operations Centers around the world, meaning that most governments can't access the data easily on their own. The U.A.E. worries that because of jurisdictional issues, its courts couldn't compel RIM to turn over secure data from its servers, which are outside the U.A.E. even in a national-security situation, a person familiar with the situation said. The U.A.E. ban is the latest in a string of skirmishes world-wide for RIM as governments try to monitor and control communications. Kuwait, India and China are among countries that have asked RIM for easier data access as a condition for operating within their borders. The U.A.E. ban, due to start Oct. 11, was the result of the "failure of ongoing attempts, dating back to 2007, to bring BlackBerry services in the U.A.E. in line with U.A.E. telecommunications regulations," the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said Sunday. The ban doesn't affect telephone and text-messaging services. "BlackBerry data is immediately exported offshore, where it's managed by a foreign, commercial organization. BlackBerry data services are currently the only data services operating in the U.A.E. where this is the case," the agency said. "Today's decision is based on the fact that, in their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national-security concerns." RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, didn't comment on the U.A.E. ban. The U.A.E. acted after RIM refused to set up a proxy server in the country as required by its 2007 contract with telecom provider Emirates Telecommunications Corp., a majority of which is owned by the government, according to the person familiar with the situation. RIM last month offered to allow the government access to the communications of 3,000 of its roughly 500,000 U.A.E.-based BlackBerry clients, including email, text messages and IM communications, the person said. But the U.A.E. declined the offer, the person said. The government doesn't plan to ban smartphones made by the company's two global competitors, Nokia Corp. and Apple Inc., said one of the people familiar with the situation. RIM, which has about 46 million subscribers world-wide, is unusual among cellphone makers in that BlackBerrys, which were initially designed for corporate users, come with a high level of security built in. The messages are encrypted on the device before being sent and remain encrypted until they reach their destination. The messages are processed at one of RIM's Network Operations Centers, the principal one of which is in Canada. The NOCs use proprietary technology, making it difficult for outsiders to hack in. Smartphones from other companies don't have the same centralized control over email or data transmissions and don't come preloaded with the same level of propriety security technology as Black Berrys do. The centralized structure makes BlackBerry communications more secure, said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of law and computer science at Harvard University. But the structure also creates a tempting target for governments, which see the possibility of getting access to a large pool of information through RIM, he said. And while RIM cooperates with governments on requests for national-security-related data that pass through its servers, it can't be forced to relinquish information from servers that aren't in a particular government's jurisdictions, Prof. Zittrain said. A government has more leverage if the servers are within its borders. "If you've got a NOC there, the government can say 'We're shutting down the power. We're posting guards at your door,' " Prof. Zittrain said. Another person familiar with the matter said a key worry for U.A.E. officials was that BlackBerry's IM service was effectively untraceable. That could be a problem if RIM resisted handing over data sought by the U.A.E. "If the U.A.E. government needs this information, for criminal cases, they are unable to access it because the culprits used BlackBerry messenger service," the person said. A senior Indian official last week said BlackBerry's encryption makes monitoring of its network impossible and creates a security threat. The Indian government, which is negotiating with RIM, has warned the company that its operations will be closed unless the company addresses the concerns. The U.A.E.'s carriers—Emirates Telecommunications, known as Etisalat, and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co.—said they would comply with the ban. The ban is the latest twist in a long-running battle between the U.A.E. and RIM. Last year, RIM notified BlackBerry users in the nation that an application Etisalat had told its clients was a technical upgrade was actually spyware. Users who downloaded the patch had complained of disruption in email and other services. Etisalat subsequently offered directions on disabling the software.