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Privacy advocates warn that the shift to using
handheld devices for email, telephone calls and Internet searches
has created a global gold mine for snoops and spies.
Le Monde newspaper has reported that government officials in France
are advised against using BlackBerry devices because the US National
Security Agency (NSA) might snatch information from e-mails.
"It is good for a government to say that wireless information
is less secure so be very cautious what you put out there,"
Electronic Privacy Information Center senior counsel Melissa Ngo
told AFP.
"People need to know this. We see various government agencies,
like the FBI, have been using warrantless searches and NSA letters
that don't need approval."
In response to an AFP inquiry, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion
dismissed any concerns by the French government as needless reaction
to a "rehashed two-year-old rumor" that US spies peek into
its network.
"No one, including RIM, has the ability to view the content of
any data communication sent using the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution
because all the data is encrypted," the Canada based BlackBerry
maker said.
"The origin of the emails cannot be traced or analyzed for
content."
BlackBerry devices are used by more than 700,000 government workers
worldwide, according to RIM.
European officials have long suspected that a US-led program
code-named Echelon established during the Cold War to intercept and
decode electronic messages has been used to spy on their nations
since the Iron Curtain's fall.
Speculation that the NSA or other spy organizations siphon
information from BlackBerry e-mails routed through servers in the
US, Canada or elsewhere is "false and misleading," RIM
contends.
But privacy advocates and hacker groups counter that once data is
sent wirelessly it is vulnerable to interception and that breaking
encryptions is a matter of technology and time.
"Whenever information is transferred in wireless mobile form
there is always risk it will be captured and hacked into; that is
just the nature of wireless transmission," Ngo said.
"A lot of people don't think about the broader implications
when they are using their cell phone or their mobile device. People
need to understand that with convenience comes the risk of security
breach."
A federal judge in San Francisco is presiding over a slew of civil
cases accusing US telecom agencies of letting NSA agents secretly
tap into cables used to carry e-mail messages.
An ATT worker testified in one case that ATT diverted fiber optic
lines in a San Francisco facility through a room reserved for NSA
agents that assumedly scanned emails in the name of fighting
terrorism.
US lawyers are trying to get the cases thrown out of court in the
interest of national security.
"In this day and age, with everything digital, no type of
information is ever really safe," said Ngo. "The
warrantless surveillance stuff is everywhere."
Conspiracy theorists maintain Echelon flourishes and involves
industrial espionage. The United States, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand and Britain are said to collaborate in the increasingly
sophisticated electronic snooping.
An NSA website posting last year described a mission to
"intercept and analyze foreign adversaries' communications
signals many of which are protected by codes and other complex
countermeasures."
People should vigilantly guard sensitive information, no matter what
technology they use, privacy advocates advise.
"Cut down on the information you are just throwing out there
for people to pick up and you will make your life a lot more
secure," Ngo advises.
"Whether you are using wireless, landline, or handing a piece
of paper to an assistant, it has to have enough security
safeguards."
-- AFP
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