BlackBerry may have handed its encryption key over to Canadian law enforcement, the company suggested on Monday.
“We have long been clear in our stance that tech companies as good corporate citizens should comply with reasonable lawful access requests,” company CEO John Chen said in a blog post on the company’s website. “I have stated before that we are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good.
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“This very belief was put to the test in an old case that recently resurfaced in the news, which speculated on and challenged BlackBerry’s corporate and ethical principles,” he added. “In the end, the case resulted in a major criminal organization being dismantled. Regarding BlackBerry’s assistance, I can reaffirm that we stood by our lawful access principles.”
An investigation by VICE News and Motherboard revealed last week that Canada’s police hold a “global encryption key” capable of unlocking any noncorporate Blackberry’s encrypted messages. It was not certain whether they obtained the key on their own or whether it was given to them by the company.
Blackberry’s “lawful access principles” state that the country will help law enforcement access devices “limited to the strict context of lawful access and national security requirements as governed by … judicial oversight and rules of law.”
“At no point was BlackBerry’s [Business Enterprise] server involved,” Chen added. “Our BES continues to be impenetrable — also without the ability for backdoor access — and is the most secure mobile platform for managing all mobile devices. That’s why we are the gold standard in government and enterprise-grade security.”
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Chen made no mention of noncorporate devices that do not connect to the company’s BE server, suggesting that those are now insecure due to the information Blackberry provided to authorities.
Blackberry has suffered over the last several years due competition from Apple, which was recently locked in a high-profile battle with the U.S. government over whether it should help officials bypass security on one of its iPhones.
