Mobile devices ripe targets
2007-06-24 16:43
San Francisco - 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 rumour" 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 analysed for content."
'Risk of security breach'
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 organisations 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 AT&T worker testified in one case that AT&T 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.
'Information never really safe'
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."