Why Modi govt and BlackBerry may be BFFs soon

BlackBerry CEO John Chen has spoken a lot about focusing and building on the strengths of BlackBerry’s security heritage since he took over in the latter half of last year. Way back in November 2013, we had written about how he would most likely make the most of the Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations to rebuild BlackBerry on the foundation of secure mobility. And while BlackBerry had never stopped walking the security talk, even before Chen swooped in to try and save the once iconic smartphone-maker, the last few weeks and months have seen renewed hectic action as Chen’s focus bears fruit in an attempt to re-emphasise the pitch that BlackBerry and security are two sides of the same coin.

Towards the end of May came Project Ion , which was a futuristic vision to leverage QNX technologies to build a cloud-based product that enables companies and developers to quickly and securely take part in the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT could broadly be described as network of uniquely identifiable objects with certain properties of computing, accessed through the Internet. Think everything from dumb sensors to smart machines.

But Project Ion is futuristic and the pragmatic Chen knew BlackBerry couldn’t focus on the future without getting the present right, so in mid-June came BBM Protected , which was BlackBerry’s well regarded BlackBerry Messenger on encryption steroids, with end-to-end encryption for corporates. BBM is also fully cross-platform for all major mobile platforms with the Windows Phone version out of the door a week ago. And towards the end of July came the announcement that BlackBerry would acquire Secusmart GmbH, a privately-held German company specialising in voice and data encryption.

A new version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server, BES 12, will be out later this year and will bring BES’s famous security and control capabilities to iOS and Android too. BES is what has ensured unbreakable protection for corporate users.

Closer home in India, though BlackBerry allowed the Indian government to access BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) and BBM communication to ensure the government could lawfully monitor these to prevent terrorists from using these technologies, BlackBerry refused to provide India access to BES communication by handing over encryption keys and said it was impossible to do so given the BES security architecture. And BlackBerry also boasts of “the only ‘Full Operational Capability’ certificate to run on US Department of Defense networks ever granted to a mobile vendor.”

Earlier this week BlackBerry announced it had gained approval from the US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for its Secure Workspace feature on BES 10 to manage and secure devices powered by Android and iOS . All in all, seemingly sound business strategy, building on the already existing foundation of security with some futuristic plans and some that are reality today.

But what does that have to do with the Narendra Modi-led Indian government?

Actually, plenty. The biggest factor perhaps is the Secusmart acquisition. Secusmart became famous in security circles when German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration dumped Apple iPhones for secure BlackBerry 10 smartphones running the additional Secusmart solution on the microSD card in the wake of the Edward Snowden NSA revelations which alleged that Merkel’s own phone was hacked by US spies and voice calls and data monitored.

According to German tabloid Bild, Merkel used her phone as an important working tool, even sending text messages (SMS) to communicate decisions with the initials, ‘am.’ Germany has been furious with the US ever since and the revelations have in fact led to increasing paranoia in Germany, Europe’s most powerful economy, especially as the German government considered the US a friend and Merkel publicly said tapping friends was an absolute no-go.

In fact if you Google it, when you type “US spying on” the first suggestion offered up is Germany.

India is another country that’s, to politely put it, peeved over US spying. Back in 2013 the Snowden papers revealed that India was No 5 in the list of countries most snooped into by the NSA and No 1 among the BRICS countries. And more recently, new revelations came forth about the now ruling BJP being one of the six non-US political parties being spied on when it was in the opposition and presumably even today.

While the Congress-led UPA government brushed the revelations under the carpet in 2013 and didn’t take the opportunity haul the US over the coals, at least in the public eye, Modi won’t be inclined to do so. The US has given him a hard time and he’s not a man who forgets. And just over a week ago, there were reports of listening devices being found in Union Minister and former BJP President Nitin Gadkari’s Delhi home , and though Gadkari later denied it, there is suspicion the report could be true and that the US NSA could be involved.

To prevent further US snooping, Modi and the government need to use communications infrastructure that is secure. And which is already proven by being accepted as the secure smartphone of choice by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, her government, and by the government in Canada – the Secusmart solution on BlackBerry. It doesn’t hurt that BlackBerry itself is a mobility provider to all the G7 governments. Secusmart CEO Hans-Christoph Quelle has also publicly said that theoretically it would take 149 billion years to crack their encryption based on today’s technical standards, even with the use of special computers - “The universe itself isn’t even that old. That’ll definitely keep the USA busy for awhile.”

And since BlackBerry is a Canadian company, despite the US government being a BlackBerry customer, with US President Barack Obama himself sporting a custom-secured BlackBerry, other countries don’t fear US government influence on BlackBerry. And there’s also the matter of Secusmart’s anti-eavesdropping capabilities not just being restricted to BlackBerry smartphones but also landlines.

Modi himself is tremendously tech-savvy, and he would be loathe to allow the US to tap his own gadgets’ possible voice and data transmissions. And that of his ministers and bureaucrats and the Indian security establishment. And that’s where BlackBerry and Secusmart fit in perfectly. Even Modi’s Apple iPad may be a security loophole since the UK banned iPads from Cabinet meetings because over security concerns.

And while the government may not use it for its own use yet, at least not officially, there’s also the matter of mobile instant messaging technologies which have proliferated and most of which cannot be lawfully intercepted by the government. WhatsApp was blamed for the ease of communication that made the infamous Muzaffarnagar riots even deadlier . And just yesterday, China blocked messaging apps Kakao and Line as an anti-terrorist measure.

BBM (other than BBM Protected) can be lawfully intercepted by the Indian government and other governments, which was seen in the London riots of 2011 where BBM was used but since it was compatible with UK legislation on the interception of communication, the authorities there could trace those who incited rioters through BBM and prosecuted them. If a security-conscious Modi administration chooses to go the China way in the interest of ‘security’ then BBM may be one of the few messaging apps that come out unscathed.

Another reason for the Modi government to get closer to BlackBerry.