Recently, the UAE appeared in the news with some security/privacy related issue; the fact that using encrypted services on the Internet could be a danger to the nation’s security. “The UAE threatened to discontinue some BlackBerry services because of RIM’s refusal to offer a surveillance back door to its customers’ encrypted communications.” [1]

Now, 2 days ago, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the group defending
your rights in the digital world, requested Verizon in an open letter to revoke the CA (certificate authority) certificate from Etisalat, the nation’s CA. How does all of this work?
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Gulfnews reported that the TRA, the UAE’s authority that regulates all telecommunication things, will be shutting down Blackberry services.

Reason being, It can’t be wiretapped is not in line with UAE telecommunications regulations. Which was figured out after it was active for 3.5 years. Maybe providers will come out with a “patch” again to enable these services?

I guess they’ll come to a agreement whereby BBM Messenger will be blocked, emails will be enabled again (since all HTTPS enabled webmail solutions are encrypted anyway) and web traffic will be forced through the country’s proxy servers.