BlackBerry messages - police want access
The government wants to introduce new legislation that will give the police investigators access to encrypted BlackBerry messages sent via the messenger service and known as BBMs.
A report in The New Age says that criminals are using BBMs to communicate with each other in planning and executing crimes. Deputy communications minister, Obed Bapela says these messages pose a security risk to the government - something that needs to urgently be addressed.
Bapela referred to legislation in Britain and Saudi Arabia that gave police access to the encrypted messages and said that South Africa needed similar legislation. He was addressing delegates at the Southern African Telecommunications Networks and Applications Conference (Satnac).
He says that the government intends to ask Research in Motion - the owner of BlackBerry - for the means to decrypt the messages after the proposal has been approved by the Cabinet.
