A Qatari sovereign wealth fund has been identified as one of a number of backers to buy into failing flailing former mobile powerhouse BlackBerry. The investment was revealed in an SEC filing made by BlackBerry on Friday November 8. Qatar Holdings LLC joined a group of other investors led by Fairfax Holdings (the company which …

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Sunday 10th November 2013 22:43 GMT Don Jefe

You would think certain Western governments would be really bent out of shape over potential security risks with this. I'm not saying there are any risks, but if Western government can't trust their own citizens not to be terrorists-in-waiting, how can they trust a foreign government not under direct control of the US or UK with the keys to Blackberry?

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1. Monday 11th November 2013 05:43 GMT Levente Szileszky
  
  They didn't get any keys. They got some bonds that might be converted to equity shares after a certain period in a publicly traded company - this has nothing to do with any direct access to the technology the company uses (eg ask yourself: just how much patented secret technology you can take a look at when you buy, say a bunch of Apple, MSFT or GM shares, without becoming a majority shareholder? Yep, exactly.)
  
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2. Monday 11th November 2013 18:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  As per the Gartner recommendations they mostly preparing exit routes to other platforms either as contingency or as strategy - it seems that Windows Phone is the lead contender after Android's dismal security record.......
  
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3. Monday 11th November 2013 18:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Seeing as we know from Snowden that the NSA have already remotely exploited Blackberry handsets, I can't see that a change of ownership makes any difference!
  
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  1. Monday 11th November 2013 20:19 GMT Levente Szileszky
    
    "Seeing as we know from Snowden that the NSA have already remotely exploited Blackberry handsets"
    
    More "gyezinformacija" from Redmond..? Pretty low-brow tactics...
    
    ...FYI, no, Snowden never said they have broken BB's encryption, all he claimed that they were able to read messages - which, considering BB recommends AES which is practically impossible to break (AES256), most likely meant getting around their BES server ie either compromising the other end or, most likely, eavesdropping on the transport layer on the internet (beyond BES.)
    
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Sunday 10th November 2013 23:43 GMT channel extended

BB Security

All communication for a telephone, voice,IM, and email is required to go through a local server And the local govt's always has a key. This really changes nothing.

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1. Monday 11th November 2013 20:19 GMT Levente Szileszky
  
  Re: BB Security
  
  "All communication for a telephone, voice,IM, and email is required to go through a local server And the local govt's always has a key. "
  
  Err, no, it is not true at all.
  
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  1. Monday 11th November 2013 20:30 GMT asdf
    
    Re: BB Security
    
    >>"All communication for a telephone, voice,IM, and email is required to go through a local server And the local govt's always has a key. "
    
    Err, no, it is not true at all, as far as we know. TFIFY.
    
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    1. Monday 11th November 2013 21:18 GMT asdf
      
      Re: BB Security
      
      These NDAs, US FISA orders, UK gag order thing, etc means executives that are honest can go to jail for years.
      
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      1. Thursday 14th November 2013 17:53 GMT Levente Szileszky
        
        Re: BB Security
        
        BB is Canadian, for starter, not sure if they have to comply with any secret Canadian law. Secondly its encryption means if you run your own server you can keep your information to yourself as long as you don't leave the secure pipe of communication, as far as we know NSA did not break AES256 (recommended by BES setup.)
        
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