Jeff Radebe Denies Regulation Of Blackberry’s Messenger Services In South Africa

Research in Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry Service is under fire and facing E-Surveillance Regulations in various Nations. Of course, this is a “gross lack of understanding” of Technology and a “futile exercise” to control the same.

India is one such Nations that believe that E-Surveillance is better than and a substitute of Cyber Security. India seems to be a country that believes that an Internet Kill Switch can be a solution to Cyber Threats. As a result it forced Blackberry to provide a framework that would allow Indian Intelligence Agencies to monitor contents on its Messenger Service. Thus, Blackberry’s Messenger Service is now an E-Surveillance tool in India.

However, we have seen “positive developments” as well. For instance, United Nations has declared that Right to Internet Connection a Human Right. Similarly, recently the Council of Europe’s drafted a Resolution on abuse of State Secrecy and National Security respecting the Civil Liberties. The latest to add to this list is the declaration by South Africa’s Justice Minister Jeff Radebe that South Africa has no plans to regulate Blackberry's encrypted message service BBM for the Cyber Security.

Jeff Radebe said that there were no plans at this stage to regulate the BBM service of Blackberry. His statement came after the Deputy Minister of Communication Obed Bapela recently called for such regulation.

"I have been assigned the portfolio of cyber-security and wish to invite specialists to assist us to determine whether we should regulate applications such as BBM within the context of cyber security," Bapela had said earlier.

The use of BBM in civil unrest in recent weeks in South Africa had raised fears that it could give rise to situations such as that experienced in Arab states.

With countries such as India and Saudi Arabia also recently having proposed regulation for the Blackberry service, legal experts here expressed concern about Bopela's suggestion. However, not only Bopela's viewpoint is right but also ideal as he is inviting the Cyber Security Experts to deliberate upon security related problem that Countries like India and Arab States never do.

Cyber Security problems can be solved only through a “Techno Legal Regime” and not through E-Surveillance and “Oppressive Methods” that India and Arab States are doing. India needs to develop Intelligence Gathering Skills and Cyber Skills to solve it s Cyber Security and National Security related problems.