Charlie Lehardy

By now I’m sure you’ve seen the news that terrorists have attacked various places in Bombay, India. If not, what rock have YOU been living under?

Anyway, I also read from the Times Online that terrorists “seized mobile phones and BlackBerries from their hostages and used them to contact each other and monitor world reaction.” Which reminds me of some stories I read a number of months ago about RIM and the Indian government.

In March of this year, the Indian government threatened to shut down the entire Indian Blackberry network of almost 400,000 if RIM didn’t give the government access to the security keys required to decrypt all wireless data. RIM balked, but then gave in on May 22nd of this year. However, they backtracked on that promise a bit and promised to keep things secure on the 27th of May.

Now, considering the reports that the terrorists were using Blackberries to communicate with eachother and keep an eye on the outside world, I’m a bit worried. Why? Well, I’m sure that people in the Indian government (and RIM themselves) are wondering what they might have been able to do differently if they had been able to see what the terrorists were saying to eachother.

Just watch and see, it’ll be just another week or two and the Indian government will be calling for monitoring of RIM’s Blackberry network in India and they won’t be put off so easily this time. Next it will be the English government (they’re already implementing CCTV “crime prediction” cameras) and then the rest of the governments that we the people answer to. All in the name of security.

This isn’t to say that I know exactly what I think of this. I mean, on one side, it’ll truly help in the war on terror and allow our governments to more effectively protect us, their citizens. However, it will also give a LOT more power and with that comes abuses. The movie V for Vendetta comes to mind and that rather scares me. But that’s where we’re collectively heading, you can see the writing on the walls. So, what do you think?