BlackBerry is known for the security it provides to its customers' communications using encryption. To put it better, it was the first mobile device maker to use end-to-end encryption for the security of its customers.
But a new report has revealed that the company has released a master key backdoor cuts in law enforcement since 2010.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has a Master Key decryption of the BlackBerry devices from 2010, according to a new Vice Publishing.
The report shows that Canadian police used the master key to monitoring and the decryption of over 1 million messages that were allegedly sent safe BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service in a 2-year criminal investigation.
During the murder trial in 2011, RCMP revealed that it had successfully unlocked and read approximately 1 million messages sent between BlackBerry devices using the "appropriate decryption key."
How did RCMP have the Master Key?
Neither the RCMP nor the prosecutor disclosed how police obtained the Master Decryption Key to be able to decrypt messages sent through the BlackBerry service Internet Service.
However, the most reasonable answer (though it is a case) is that BlackBerry itself gave the federal authorities of Canada the access they wanted.
But besides that, the most important question is whether RCMP still has the key.
After closing the “Project Clemenza,” an RCMP investigation into a mob murder, BlackBerry changed the Master Key. But the RCMP is believed to still have the ability to decipher BBM messages.
