SA might decrypt BBM messages

South Africa’s Deputy Communications Minister Kopeng Obed Bapela told a delegation at the Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (Satnac) in East London, that South Africa might look into the decryption of BlackBerry-type messenger services such as BBM if cybercrimes continue to rise.

Britain and Saudi Arabia are already exploring these options, as it has come to light that looters used BBM messages to co-ordinate their actions in the recent riots in the UK.

The British government might also disable the use of BBM and social networks during riots to prevent further violence, and may also access BlackBerry messages to stop planned riots.

“Bapela quickly assured the audience that government’s intention would not be to spy on local citizens. He said that government would aim to tap into this prevention policy once a crime was committed, or potential threats came about. He said that government would aim to gazette this encryption process,” News24 wrote.

Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor